Teen girl is El Paso’s youngest virus victim, among 3 new deaths to close out deadliest recorded week
EL PASO, Texas -- A teenage girl, El Paso's youngest victim of the coronavirus, was among three new deaths reported Saturday morning by health officials to close out the deadliest recorded week of the entire pandemic.
The number of fatalities for the week reached 42, which not only set a record for El Paso but also surpassed the weekly death in neighboring Ciudad Juarez for the first time since the outbreak began. Our Mexican sister city tallied just over half of the Sun City's weekly death toll at 26, which was its lowest count in months.
It was not immediately known if the teenage victim noted in Saturday's health department death report was 19-year-old Dariana Rubio, who died earlier this week from what her family believed was the virus.
The other two latest deaths were a man in his 60s and a woman in her 70s, both with underlying health conditions.
The health department also reported 221 newly confirmed virus cases on Saturday, bringing the total number of infections to 12,971. Of those, officials indicated 3,402 were active cases - while 9,348 El Pasoans were listed as having recovered. Research shows some recovered persons can still have long-term health issues stemming from the virus.
For the week, there were 1,839 new virus cases recorded, which was down from the 2,033 infections occurring last week.
On Saturday morning, 310 people were hospitalized, which was a drop by seven patients from Friday. Of those in the hospital, 97 were listed in intensive care Saturday, marking the first time in ten days that the ICU count dropped below 100. Ventilators are currently required by 49 of the hospitalized patients.
