El Paso virus hospitalizations soar to new record amid 2 weeks of daily triple-digit case increases

EL PASO, Texas -- For the 13th day in row, health officials on Sunday morning reported triple-digit increases in new coronavirus cases as the number of infections surpassed 7,000. That milestone came as hospitalizations due to the virus also reached yet another record high.

There were 260 additional Covid-19 cases tallied for a cumulative total of 7,213. El Paso has seen triple-digit case hikes in 14 of the last 15 days, or basically the past two weeks. In addition, there have been more than 200 new daily cases reported five times over the past eight days,

No new deaths were recorded Sunday, so the total number of fatalities remained at 135.

But hospitalizations jumped from 200 to 211 on Sunday, which marked the highest number of El Pasoans in the hospital during the pandemic so far. It's the ninth-straight day for posting a new hospitalization high, and the number of patients over the past week has grown by 44%.

Among that record number of hospitalized patients, exactly a third - or 71 -were listed in intensive care on Sunday. Officials indicated 30 of those ICU patients required ventilators to breathe, which was up by three from the prior day. Bob Moore of El Paso Matters predicts "ICU cases could sharply increase in coming days as people with infections grow more ill."

Of El Paso County's caseload to date, officials said the number of active cases is at 2,631 while recoveries are listed at 4,447.