El Paso has 2nd deadliest day of virus pandemic with 7 new fatalities as total cases near 4,000
EL PASO, Texas -- Another seven people have died from coronavirus in El Paso, according to information released by the Department of Public Health Tuesday morning.
That marked the second-highest single-day increase in Covid-19 deaths announced in the county so far.
Back on May 27, public health officials reported eight deaths, which is still the record in El Paso; however, officials said in a statement that all seven deaths reported Tuesday didn't happen on the same day. They said the information from each case was gathered on the same day, which is why those deaths were announced at the same time; officials did not reveal when the deaths actually happened.
The latest fatalities from the virus were five men and two women between the ages of 60 and 80.
Public health officials said one woman in her 60's didn't have underlying health conditions. The rest had pre-existing conditions.
The Department of Public Health also announced that another 37 people tested positive. El Paso's virus death toll is now at 109 and there have been 3,948 cases.
An additional 63 recoveries were also reported, so a total of 2,795 people have recovered from the virus in El Paso. That leaves the county with 1,044 known active cases.
The number of active cases has stayed close to 1,000 since late May. That's because the number of new cases reported and the number of new recoveries have been increasing at about the same rate.
City and County Health Authority Dr. Hector Ocaranza said that El Pasoans shouldn't let their guard down just because it might seem at times that conditions are getting better.
“Our community should understand that while we might see the number of cases decrease on some days we cannot waiver in sustaining strict protective healthy habits such as frequent hand washing, social distancing and wearing face coverings,” he said.
Ocaranza has also noted that El Paso's virus spread is increasingly due to infected people who show no signs of the Covid disease.
The Department of Public Health also reported that the number of Covid-19 hospitalizations increased from 78 to 87. Officials said 51 patients were in the intensive care unit and 25 were on ventilators.
