Arlington retirement home resident is first to die from coronavirus in Tarrant County
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A senior citizen who lived at an Arlington retirement center died Sunday of the illness caused by the novel coronavirus, Tarrant County authorities said.
The county’s public health department did not release the man’s name, but Arlington News according to his family, Pat James was the first person to die of the coronavirus in Tarrant County.
The 77-year-old man lived in a duplex at the Texas Masonic Retirement Center.
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County officials are trying to determine the source of the man’s infection. They will also work to identify the people he was in contact with while he was ill so that they can be isolated, monitored for symptoms and tested.
Before his test results were known, James’ wife could not be tested, a relative said.
Pat and Jean James had experienced most of the same symptoms, according to their daughter-in-law, Shelley Brandt.
Jean James is quarantined. Until Tuesday, no one had confirmed what caused Pat’s death, Brandt said.
The family received the results of the test for COVID-19, administered the day before Pat James died, and now his widow can also have the test administered, Brandt said.
“I’m almost sure that she has it,” Brandt said. “They lived in the same house together. Right now, we are trying to get help for her and notify the people that she had contact with. I suppose they will have to take my mother-in-law’s word about his (Pat James’) contacts.”
It is not known how many people Pat James may have had contact Press Release Distribution Services In Arlington with while he was ill. The family has spoken with workers in the epidemiology department with the Tarrant County Public Health Department to help in that effort, Brandt said.
At first, Pat James believed that he might have the flu, but that test came back negative, Brandt said.
“So they sent him home and he got some Tamiflu and thought he would wait it out,” Brandt said.
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