2 more El Paso virus deaths raise toll to 45, along with 48 new cases – including some in a nursing home
EL PASO, Texas -- Both the death toll and the caseload from the coronavirus continued to grow in El Paso on Friday night, as public health officials touted increased testing capacity.
There were two additional deaths for the virus over the past day, bringing the total number of fatalities to 45. Officials said the latest victims were both women in their 70s.
There were also another 48 confirmed virus cases reported, taking the county's total to date to 1,655. Of those, 819 had recovered, leaving 791 active cases within the county.
Some of the latest cases in El Paso have occurred at Mountain View Health & Rehabilitation, a nursing care facility at 1600 Murchison Road.
"We have had persons associated with our facility test positive for Covid-19. We are working closely with the local heath authority, to determine the full spread of the outbreak," Mountain View said in a statement, although it did not specify how many confirmed cases there were.
Give the vulnerability of the elderly population, El Paso Fire Department officials said they were moving swiftly to carry out an order by Texas' governor to test all residents and staff at the more than 20 licensed nursing homes within El Paso.
Health leaders continued to attribute some of the new cases reported Friday to an increase in testing, citing more than 2,200 tests conducted in the past two days at testing facilities around the county.
In addition, officials had previously announced an extension of free virus testing within the county for another week. Anyone with or without symptoms can sign up for an appointment to get tested until Saturday, May 23. Details on the testing offered can be found by clicking here.
Below is the latest El Paso coronavirus case locator map and other demographic information on the virus outbreak as provided by the health department.
The map shows the amount of positive cases by zip codes, with the number of cases in red dots: 79821 (6), 79835 (48), 79836 (10), 79838 (18), 79849 (38), 79853 (27), 79901 (21), 79902 (34), 79903 (54), 79904 (51), 79905 (65), 79907 (91), 79911 (11), 79912 (116), 79915 (76), 79922 (9), 79924 (88), 79925 (71), 79927 (91), 79928 (120), 79930 (54), 79932 (62), 79934 (36), 79935 (34), 79936 (200), 79938 (224).
