Coronavirus: Travis County Illness Count 6,339, 2 More Deaths

AUSTIN, TX — The number of cases of the coronavirus in Travis County rose by 6,596 rose by a whopping 257 cases on Tuesday from the previous day, bringing the total count of respiratory illness so far to 3,596. In addition, another pair of deaths was reported in the past 24-hour period in increasing the fatality count to 114.

The uptick was reported as part of a daily count tallied on a statistical dashboard maintained by Austin Public Health officials. The data show 4,512 people have recovered from the illness, but 236 patients are currently hospitalized — including 94 being treated at intensive care units and another 34 on ventilators.

Data also show Hispanics represent the most impacted group, comprising 60 percent of cases while representing some 35 percent of the Travis County population.

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The local increase comes on the same day that Texas saw more than 5,000 cases of the respiratory illness for which there is no vaccine — the biggest single-day increase for the state since records have been kept. Texas Department of State Health Services officials on Tuesday reported 5,489 new diagnoses — just days after the Lone Star State crossed the 4,000 mark for the first time.

Coronavirus cases have grown steadily since Gov. Greg Abbott began to reopen the state economy on May 1, starting with limited occupancy levels of customers allowed to reenter malls, movie theaters and restaurants. Since then, the governor has issued a series of phases to allow even more businesses to reopen at similar capacity levels — everything from bars and bingo halls to nail salons and tanning booths.

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Along the way, Abbott issued executive orders deeming church services and construction activity as "essential services," much to the consternation of health officials calling for physical distancing to blunt the spread of illness. Abbott also previously deemed the wearing of fabric face coverings as an optional tactic dictated by a sense of "individual responsbility" even as he recommended their use, further indirectly eroding what is perceived by health officials as one of the most effective tactics to mitigate the spread of furtheri lllness.

On Monday, Abbott acknowledged the exponential increase in illness. But he pivoted most of the focus of the current trends to a focus on hospital bed availability, touting the number of beds available to avoid hospitals from being overwhelmed by an influx of newly diagnosed patients. During a question-and-answer question with reporters, Abbott acknowledged some pediatric hospitals are now having to set aside some beds for potential coronavirus patients.

Despite the growing numbers, Abbott vowed not to close down the state economy again. "Closing down Texas again will always be the last option," he said resolutely during the news conference.

Still, Abbott on Tuesday gave city mayors and county judges greater leeway in dictating the size of allowable crowds in their respective regions. As it relates to the wearing of masks, Abbott last week acknowledged elected leaders across the state had enforcement authority all along to compel their use even after he issued an executive order making mask wearing optional.

"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 at the local level. "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 during a June 16 news conference that Abbott suggested cities always 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, while noting his executive order pertained strictly to the punitive measures imposed on individuals — even as that was not specifically noted in his order.

Abbott's 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 measure of enforcement authority all along — 50 days after his fines-banning order — and following warnings to 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."

From earlier:

AUSTIN, TX — The number of cases of the coronavirus in Travis County reached 6,339 on Monday — an increase of 129 from the day before — and two more deaths were reported, bringing the fatality of count to 112.

And that may be just the tip of the iceberg. Austin Mayor Steve Adler said the report was a partial one as the emergence of new diagnoses were coming in quicker than Austin Public Health were able to accurately record. As a result, the mayor said, the updated figures for Tuesday will likely include the balance of the unrecorded cases from Monday.

Austin Public Health officials noted that 4,317 patients have recovered from illness since contracting the virus that causes respiratory illness — an increase of 177 from the previous day. There were 1,910 active illness cases on Monday, a decrease of 50 from Sunday.

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Such increases prompted Adler to pen an open letter to residents on Sunday in which he pleaded with people to take the coronavirus threat seriously. "The virus is here," he wrote. "Infections are rising. If we want the economy to reopen fully and stay open, we have to take this seriously."

Should cases continue to rise at the current rate, state officials might have to "choose between returning to sheltering at home or watching as our hospitals get overwhelmed, and we suffer many preventable deaths."

Yet there are ways to help blunt the spread of illness, he wrote: "We could act now to try to change that trajectory. Wear masks, social distance, don’t be around people if you even think you might have the virus. We’ve got to do this, we’ve got to do this together, we’ve got to do this now."