Coronavirus: Texas Illness Count Crosses 68K, 36 New Deaths

AUSTIN, TX — On the same day that Gov. Greg Abbott announced another round of business reopening, the number of cases of the coronavirus grew by 1,703 — bringing the total number of cases to 68,271 on Wednesday. In the same 24-hour period, 36 more people died of the respiratory illness in bringing the fatality count to 1,734.

The statistics were updated on a dashboard maintained by the Texas Department of State Health Services agency. According to the dashboard, 45,858 patients have recovered from the respiratory illness since contracting the virus. There are currently 20,679 active illness cases throughout Texas, according to the dashboard.

According to the latest available data, the counties with the highest concentration of illness are:

• Harris County: 13,027 cases.
• Dallas County: 10,719 cases.
• Tarrant County: 5,623 cases.
• Travis County: 3,433 cases.
• Bexar County: 2,882 cases.
• El Paso County: 2,872 cases.
• Potter County: 2,432 cases.

Illness spikes have been reported since the governor allowed businesses to reopen in spite of health officials' continued advice on physical distancing as a measure to blunt the spread of illness. The first round of reopening occurred on May 1, when restaurants, malls and movie theaters were given the go-ahead to reopen at partial capacity. Other businesses — including barbershops, hair salons, tanning booths, bowling alleys, bars, bingo halls and others — subsequently were allowed to partially open.

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On Wednesday, the governor announce the latest round of reopening as he seeks to reignite a state economy stalled by the coronavirus spread. To that end, Abbott said all businesses in Texas will be able to operate at up to 50 percent capacity, "with very limited exceptions," he said in a prepared statement.

Moreover, business that previously have been able to operate at 100 percent capacity may continue to do so, the governor added, and most outdoor areas are not subject to capacity limits. Abbott offered a caveat: All businesses and customers should continue to follow minimum standard health protocols laid out by the Texas Department of State Health Services, he said.

"The people of Texas continue to prove that we can safely and responsibly open our state for business while containing COVID-19 and keeping our state safe,” Abbott said. "As anticipated, the new positive cases that we are seeing are largely the result of isolated hot spots in nursing homes, jails, and meat packing plants. Thanks to the effectiveness of our Surge Response Teams, we have the ability to contain those hot spots while opening up Texas for business. As we begin Phase III, I ask all Texans and Texas businesses to continue following the standard health protocols and to heed the guidance of our state and federal officials who continue to closely monitor COVID-19. If we remain vigilant, we will continue to mitigate the spread of this virus, protect public health, and get more Texans back to work and their daily activities."

And yet, recent figures belie the assertion. Other than the 1,703 new cases reported on Wednesday, 1,688 cases were reported on Tuesday. Monday saw considerably fewer cases, with 593, but that was on the heels of a Sunday that saw a spike of 1,949 new coronavirus cases — the biggest single-day increase to date.

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In announcing the expanded state opening, Abbott noted that between May 26 to June 2, more than 45 percent of new cases came from jails or prisons, meat packing plants and nursing homes. He added there are currently 1,487 Texans hospitalized due to COVID-19.

From earlier:

AUSTIN, TX — The number of cases of the coronavirus statewide grew by 1,688 cases on Tuesday, bringing the total count to 66,568 since the onset of the respiratory illness in Texas. Another 20 deaths were reported in the same time period, bringing the total count to 1,698.

The latest data is found on a statistical dashboard maintained by Texas Department of State Health Services health officials that is updated daily.

According to the data, 44,517 patients have recovered since conracting the illness-causing virus. Health officials reported 20,353 of the respiratory illness as of Tuesday.

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After considerable backlash from health experts and others, the state recently stopped co-mingling viral tests and those to detect antibodies under a single testing category. As such, the data show that 986,224 viral tests have been conducted to date, and another 107, 452 antibody tests. The population of Texas is about 29 million.