El Paso inches toward 500 virus deaths; 2nd straight day of triple-digit new case increases

EL PASO, Texas -- Two more coronavirus deaths reported on Sunday raised El Paso County's death tally to 489, as it inches towards 500 - a mark which could be reached later this week based on current trends.

Both of the latest victims identified Sunday by local health officials were men in their 70s with underlying health conditions.

El Paso also saw a triple-digit increase in new virus cases for the second day in a row, along with a significant number of "delayed" cases, which are weeks-old positive test results coming from state-contracted labs.

There were 107 new cases announced Sunday and 40 delayed cases added to El Paso's pandemic infection total, which reached 22,476.

It was the first time in several weeks that El Paso saw 40 delayed cases reported in a single day. The number of delayed cases to date in the county is well over 1,000 and continue to pile up, despite Texas Gov. Greg Abbott saying last month that that the delay would soon be resolved. It's also led to questions about data reliability for statistical trends.

Of all the cases tallied thus far during the pandemic, health officials say currently 2,979 of those cases are active ones, while 84 percent — or 18,895 are recovered. However, doctors note that some recovered persons may still experience long-term health issues stemming from having been infected.

El Paso's hospitalizations remained unchanged from Saturday at 138 on Sunday. The number of patients needing intensive care was also unchanged at 51, but there was an increase of four patients requiring ventilators - up to 29.

Complete virus data from the El Paso Department of Public Health can be found at epstrong.org.