EL PASO, Texas -- El Paso health officials reported two new coronavirus deaths on Sunday morning, raising the fatality count to 293 and marking the 21st consecutive day of virus-related deaths reported in the county.

Men have now accounted for a much higher number of deaths than women in El Paso throughout the pandemic.

Health leaders also tallied 268 new virus cases Sunday, bringing the infection total to 16,308. Of those, 4,362 cases are considered active - a new record high - surpassing 4,037 actives on July 21.

"El Paso has reported more than 8,600 new Covid-19 cases in the past five weeks, double the total cases reported in the first 14 weeks of the pandemic," he observed.

The 79927, 79928 and 79938 zip codes - which are all in eastern El Paso County - have the highest per capita rates of virus cases to date.

Moore believes that can be attributed to large numbers of people in their 20s and 30s who live in those areas, as those age groups account for the largest rise in recent infections.

As of Sunday, there have been 11,946 recoveries - although research suggests that some people who recover from the virus face long-term health issues as a result of having been infected.

That's the lowest number of people hospitalized with illness from the virus since July 5.

I’m betting their numbers are 4-10x our number of cases and deaths.

When it was the vacationing white people that brought it here to the US.

The white kids kids on beaches failing to social distance early on, the white people who refused to wear masks, the white people were the first to Protest on streets without masks and social distancing.