FORT WORTH, Texas — Tarrant County Public Health Director Vinny Taneja started his weekly COVID-19 update at Commissioners Court with this message: There is good news to share.
He told county commissioners that data over the last 2 to 3 weeks shows a decline in confirmed COVID-19 cases, as well as a decline in people visiting emergency rooms with COVID-19 symptoms.
“This is good news we have this week that our cases are now trending down over the last several weeks,” Taneja told reporters Tuesday. “But it’s also still time for caution. Again, I don’t want the public to come out and rejoice in the streets because that could undo the work we’ve done so far.”
After not reporting any data on Memorial Day, the county announced 61 new cases Tuesday, bringing the total confirmed cases to 5,038, Taneja said. There were no new deaths reported, keeping the total at 144. Seventy-eight more people had confirmed recoveries Tuesday, bringing that total to 1,912.
Taneja said the end of April is when Tarrant County peaked, and they had a small second peak in early May.
Taneja told commissioners hospitalizations and deaths have stabilized, too.
“Everything is moving along as we’d hoped,” said Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley. “We see the number of people in the hospital going down.”
Taneja cautioned that the recent Memorial Day weekend, which marked the reopening of bars across Texas, may have an impact on the numbers.
“It does give us a little bit of concern that, you know, even a large house gathering could potentially tun into an upsurge in numbers,” Taneja said. He said they’ll watch over the next two or three weeks to see “what happened on Memorial Day. And hopefully people have used good judgment.”
