Tarrant County recorded its second-highest daily number of new coronavirus cases Sunday.
The 444 new cases bring the county's total to 8,955 cases, 208 deaths and 4,160 recoveries. No new deaths were reported.
Prior to Sunday, the highest number of cases reported in a single day was 485 on May 10 when the county added 423 cases from an outbreak at the FMC Fort Worth federal prison.
Tarrant County Public Health spokesman Richard Hill said that increase was not tied to a particular outbreak or location.
"We are experiencing a generalized surge in cases," Hill said in an email. "Reasons for that surge include a number of factors, including lack of mask-wearing, lax social distancing practices, demonstrations/protests, graduation parties, commencement ceremonies and reopening of bars/restaurants/shopping/workplaces."
Despite the increase, Fort Worth will likely not be following in Dallas County's footsteps when it comes to mandating that businesses require customers to wear face coverings.
Laken Rapier, the spokeswoman for the mayor and city council, said in an email that Mayor Betsy Price "does not intend to regulate businesses through mandating face coverings."
"Rather, Mayor Price continues to strongly encourage residents to continue taking precautions such as practicing social distancing and wearing face coverings in public," she said.
The new cases were reported in Arlington, Azle, Bedford, Benbrook, Colleyville, Crowley, Edgecliff Village, Euless, Everman, Forest Hill, Fort Worth, Grand Prairie, Grapevine, Haltom City, Hurst, Keller, Kennedale, Lake Worth, Mansfield, North Richland Hills, Richland Hills, River Oaks, Saginaw, Sansom Park, Southlake, Watauga, Westover Hills, Westworth Village, White Settlement and unincorporated Tarrant County. The county also added 71 cases that have not been assigned to a particular city.
The county does not update hospital capacity metrics on Sundays or Mondays, but as of Saturday a total of 4,046 of the available 5,975 hospital beds were occupied.
Seven percent of the occupied beds were being used by COVID-19 patients. That number has been steadily rising after falling to 5% on June 1. At most, COVID-19 patients have occupied 8% of those beds during two days in May.
*Map locations are approximate, central locations for the city and are not meant to indicate where actual infected people live.
