Coronavirus: Texas Cases Grow By 1,949 To Cross 64K Mark

AUSTIN, TX — Against a backdrop of brisk reopening of the state economy directed by Gov. Greg Abbott, the number of cases of the coronavirus in Texas grew by 1,949 on Sunday in a 24-hour period — rising to 64,287. The number of fatalities also grew by 24, rising to 1,672 from the previous day.

The spike in new illness cases is the biggest single-day increase to date. The previous all-time high was recorded on May 16, when 1,801 new coronavirus cases in Texas were recorded by health officials.

Statistics on statewide coronavirus trends are compiled on a dashboard maintained by Texas Department of State Health Services officials that is updated daily. According to the dashboard, there are 20,192 active cases of respiratory illness and 42,423 people have recovered since contracting the virus.

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After considerable backlash from health experts and others, state health officials recently separated the two types of testing rather than co-mingling the distinct sets of data. Critics maintained that merging the two data sets made the testing levels artificially high. Amid such criticism, state health officials now separate viral tests from those testing for antibodies that would denote if a person had contracted the illness and recovered.

Previous coverage: Coronavirus: Texas Illness Count Tops 62K, 22 More Deaths

According to the statistical dashboard, 1,073,491 total tests have been conducted to date — 951, 865 of them viral tests and another 102,928 antibody tests. The population of Texas is roughly 29 million.

The 1,949-patient increase reported on Sunday is greater than the 1,332 new cases reported on Saturday. The number of deaths on Sunday is two more than the new fatalities reported on Saturday.

According to the state's statistical dashboard, the counties with the highest rates of illness are:

• Harris County: 12,220 cases.
• Dallas County: 10,006 cases.
• Tarrant County: 5,463 cases.
• Travis County: 3,272 cases.
• Bexar County: 2,825 cases.
• El Paso County: 2,764 cases.
• Potter County: 2,321 cases.
• Fort Bend County: 1,861 cases.
• Walker County: 1,455 cases.