More than 30 additional cases of coronavirus have been reported at the Denton State Supported Living Center, Denton County Judge Andy Eads said, reports The Texas Tribune.
During a live-streamed update Friday afternoon Eads said an additional 31 patients or residents were stricken with the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease. One employee who doesn’t reside in the county is also infected. The new cases bring the new total for the facility to 39, according to The Dallas Morning News.
The center serves more than 400 people with disabilities and it employees about 1,400 staff members.
That new caseload brings Denton County’s total to 137 cases, the judge said. They include infections in the previously unaffected municipalities of Argyle, Corinth, Roanoke and Krum.
“This disease and its spread is not strictly to our urbanized areas but it actually is spreading county-wide and I think that is of note,” he said.
Also Friday, Lubbock officials announced that six residents at the Whisperwood Nursing & Rehabilitation Center there had tested positive for the new coronavirus after two employees there also tested positive earlier in the week.
The new cases at both facilities come as a national shortage of personal protective equipment spurs fear among Texas health care workers that they may have to battle the worst of the new coronavirus outbreak without the masks, gowns and gloves needed to keep them safe.
