The total number of cases countywide is now 1,357, with 1,101 active cases, 220 recoveries and 36 deaths.
Fort Bend County Judge KP George wrote on his Facebook that the three latest Fort Bend County residents to die from the virus were a woman in her 70s, a woman in her 90s and a man in his 80s, all with underlying health conditions.
Of the 25 new cases reported May 8, 19 are located in unincorporated Fort Bend County. Sugar Land and Missouri City saw one and zero new cases, respectively.
At 206 total cases, Missouri City ZIP code 77459 still has more cases than any other Fort Bend County ZIP code. It is followed by Richmond ZIP code 77469, where there have been 187 cases. All other Fort Bend County ZIP codes are each reporting fewer than 110 cases.
Charts at the end of this story show the number of cases by Fort Bend County jurisdiction and ZIP code. Fort Bend County warns that all data on the Community Impact Dashboard is preliminary and subject to change.
At the May 5 Fort Bend County Commissioners Court meeting, Jacquelyn Minter, director of Fort Bend County Health and Human Services and local health authority, said that instead of looking at new cases county on a daily basis, the county is looking at trends during two-week periods.
In the past two weeks, from April 24-May 8, there have been 452 new cases of the coronavirus in Fort Bend County, approximately one third of the county’s total cases.
On May 8, Fort Bend County also opened its fourth and fifth free coronavirus testing sites, one in Richmond and one in the Katy area. Residents must sign up online or over the phone to be screened and receive key testing information.
To date, the county has conducted a total of 5,129 coronavirus tests, averaging about 300 tests per day in the past week. Opening the two new locations should expand the county’s testing capacity to 1,000 tests per day.
“As of today, we have universal, accessible and free testing in every single precinct of Fort Bend County,” Judge George wrote in a May 8 Facebook post. “Testing is key to reopening the economy and combating COVID-19.”
