El Paso has 4 more fatalities for 14 straight days of virus deaths

EL PASO, Texas -- The El Paso health department announced four additional coronavirus deaths on Sunday, marking 14 straight days of Covid-19 deaths being reported in the county.

The total number of El Pasoans who have died during the pandemic has now reached 273.

The latest deaths included a man in his 90s and three women - one each in her 50s, 60s and 70s. All had health issues, officials indicated.

Health leaders also reported 302 new virus cases, bringing the cumulative infection count to 14,712.

El Paso has had five straight weeks of over 1,000 new cases each, and Sunday's tally puts the county almost a third of the way there for a potential sixth week.

While some of that stretch may be attributed to increased testing, El Paso Matters CEO Bob Moore - who analyzes the health department data weekly - believes it's "indicating a deeper spread of Covid-19 in the community."

During the just completed month of July, new cases were up 40% when compared to the rest the pandemic, with more than half of the those infections occurring in people under 40.

Hospitalizations in El Paso due to virus-related illnesses increased by four to reach 278 as of Sunday morning, while the numbers of patients in the ICU dropped by one to 104. Those needing ventilators remained the same at 53.

While hospitalizations have declined steadily over the past week, those "numbers remain well above what we’d seen prior to July," Moore observed.