Coronavirus: Texas Illness Count Crosses 100K Mark

AUSTIN, TX — The number of cases of the coronavirus in Texas crossed the 100,000 on Friday, bringing the total to 103,305. The fatality count grew by 35 for a historical total of 2,140, health officials added.

The data are found on a statistical dashboard maintained by the Texas Department of State Health Services. Officials report some 65,329 people have recovered since contracting the illness-causing virus. Currently, there are 3,148 coronavirus patients currently hospitalized as illustrated on the dashboard.

Those updated figures cap a week that saw seven consecutive days for record numbers of hospitalized coronavirus patients. On Thursday, the total number of hospitalizations was 2,947 — 201 less than the number posted on Friday. In parsing the data, the number of people hospitalized in Texas due to coronavirus is nearly twice as many as the number reported on Memorial Day.

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According to the dashboard, the greatest concentration of illness have occurred in:

• Harris County: 18, 552 cases to date, with 10,310 active cases.
• Dallas County: 15,648 cases, 4,971 active.
• Tarrant County: 8,099 cases, 3,996 active.
• Bexar County: 5,550 cases, 2,687 active.
• Travis County: 4,991 cases, 1,066 active.
• El Paso County: 4,178 cases, 886 active.
• Potter County: 2,819 cases, 1,260 active.
• Fort Bend County: 2,726 cases, 1,526 active.
• Collin County: 2,026 cases, 608 active.
• Denton County: 1,980 cases, 850 active.
• Walker County: 1,890 cases, 359 active.

Given the rising rates of illness, Gov. Greg Abbott this week pivoted to focus on the number of hospital beds available during a news conference. In spite of growing illness, Abbott assured there was little chance of hospitals becoming overwhelmed given what he categorized as ample hospital room for patients.

During his Tuesday news conference, Abbott also sought to downplay rising rates of illness in some areas of the state as attributable to concentrations of gatherings (at reopened bars, jails or meatpacking plants, for example) rather than painting the spikes as rampant.

During a question-and-answer session with reporters after his formal presentation, the governor was pressed about his resistance not to allow mayors to mandate the practice of wearing protective masks — a safeguard Abbott himself continues to recommend even after having waived the mandate for them, making their use voluntary.

Related story: Coronavirus: Texas Points To Bed Availability As Illness Spikes

“We make clear that no jurisdiction can impose any type of penalty or fine,” Abbott said on April 27 in what seemed to be his stripping municipalities of any enforcement authority. “My executive order, it supersedes local orders, with regard to any type of fine or penalty for anyone not wearing a mask.”

Yet it was during a reporter's questioning on Tuesday that Abbott suggested cities all along had the authority to compel businesses to require mask wearing before allowing entry into their premises. Those not adhering to the rules could be slapped with trespassing charges, the governor said. His concession immediately ushered in a spate of fortified rules related to the wearing of masks across the state, including in Austin and the whole of Travis County along with neighboring San Antonio and other Texas cities.

It was Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff who essentially broke the code of Abbott's order when he implemented a mask order with renewed urgency — in seeming violation of the governor's order. Rather than coming down hard on Wolff, the governor's office issued a statement his move did not run afoul of the order. "Except, because Abbott never publicly signaled that’s what he was doing, it was more like he had offered a riddle," Texas Monthly observed. "A riddle, like the one the Sphinx offered Oedipus. And Wolff had solved it."

Abbott's revelation cities had some enforcement authority all along — 50 days after his fines-banning order — after warning local officials not to implement punitive measures for violators has given rise to heightened criticism of the governor's handling of the coronavirus spread in Texas. "Greg Abbott Invites You to Figure Out What His Coronavirus Executive Orders Allow," blared the Texas Monthly headline two days later in suggesting the cryptic nature of the governor's order.

The governor saw the development decidedly differently: “Earlier today the county judge in Bexar County finally figured that out,” Abbott told a Waco TV station about Wolff, as reported by Texas Monthly. “They finally read what we had written.”