Record 98 New Coronavirus Deaths Logged In Texas, 9,979 New Cases

AUSTIN, TX — For the second day in a row, Texas saw a big spike in cases of the coronavirus on Wednesday with 9,979 new diagnoses from the day before when more than 10,000 cases were reported. Additionally, 98 new deaths were reported across the state, marking a new record for fatalities in a single day.

The latest fatality count is more than the 60 deaths reported on Wednesday. Updated figures were input by Texas Department of State Health Services on a dashboard updated daily. The seven-day average testing positivity rate soared to more than 15 percent on Wednesday. Gov. Greg Abbott — among the nation's first governors to reopen a coronavirus-stalled economy in phases starting May 1 — has often said a 10 percent average of that metric would be cause for concern.

Since the onset of illness in Texas, 220,564 cases of coronavirus have been positively diagnosed, and 2,813 people have died from the virus. There are currently 104,467 active cases of the illness from which 113,284 have recovered.

The governor in recent days has taken some measures to stem the swelling tide of illness across the state — including scaling back on his own economic reopening. Abbott was the nation's second governor to reopen his state's economy as other states were waiting for the illness trend to flatten before allowing businesses to reopen — insisting his multi-phased reopening plan would be guided by "doctors and data." Georgia was the first state in the nation to attempt an economic jumpstart a week before Texas.

Just before the July 4 weekend, Abbott ordered bars to close up again along with tubing and rafting operations. He put a pause to his own economic reopening, a move that only amounted to holding off on letting already-opened businesses — from gyms to restaurants — to operate at 100 percent capacity.

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In a development that took many by surprise, Abbott last week reversed his previous stance of not requiring residents to wear protective face coverings to avert the spread of disease. He issued an executive order that mandated mask-wearing, and banned all elective surgeries and medical procedures to make hospital space available for a potential influx of new coronavirus patients. He also granted municipalities greater authority in limiting the size of crowds.

Despite his reversal on the wearing of fabric face coverings — and in spite of the worrisome illness increases — the governor maintained his mask-wearing exemption for those attending church services or voting in the upcoming primary runoff elections. "Your constitutional rights are not voided simply because of a pandemic," Abbott reasoned during an interview with KBTX in Bryan, Texas.

In light of the illness tide, Abbott now aggressively recommends the wearing of masks in a departure from his preference to make their use voluntary as guided by residents' "individual responsibility," as he often said in the past. In issuing his June 23 executive order now mandating their use, he said: "Wearing a face covering in public is proven to be one of the most effective ways we have to slow the spread of COVID-19. We have the ability to keep businesses open and move our economy forward so that Texans can continue to earn a paycheck, but it requires each of us to do our part to protect one another — and that means wearing a face covering in public spaces."

A screenshot from the Texas Department of State Health Services shows the number of new coronavirus cases recorded for Wednesday, July 8, 2020.

Only time will tell if the mitigating steps Abbott has taken in recent days will have an impact given exponential spread of a respiratory illness for which no vaccine exists. Health officials told the Texas Tribune that Texas is now a hot spot of the global pandemic, and more aggressive measures are needed to blunt spread of the virus.

Stated another way, new confirmed cases of coronavirus now represent around 14 percent of the U.S. total measured by a seven-day average, the Tribune reported, a higher proportion than 9 percent share of the nation's population. The U.S. as a whole has reported 358,027 since July 1, the Tribune noted. Of those, 50,599 emerged from Texas.

Previous coverage:

• Texas Gains 8K-Plus New Coronavirus Cases In All-Time High
• Texas Gains More Than 10K New Coronavirus Cases, 60 New Deaths
• Texas Tops 200K Coronavirus Cases
• Texas Governor Mandates Face Masks Amid Coronavirus Spikes
• Coronavirus: Texas Points To Bed Availability As Illness Spikes
• Coronavirus Cases In Texas Top 153K, 4,288 New Cases
• Coronavirus: Texas Gets Nearly 6K New Cases In A Single Day
• Coronavirus: Texas Illness Count Grows By 5,707, 28 New Deaths
• Coronavirus: Texas Governor Orders All Bars To Close
• Coronavirus: Texas Bans Elective Surgeries Amid Illness Spikes
• Coronavirus: Texas Halts Economy Reopening Amid Growing Illness
• Coronavirus: Texas Mayors Given Greater Authority On Crowd Sizes
• Coronavirus: Governor Outlines Plan To Reopen Texas Economy
• Texas Governor Allows Malls, Restaurants, More To Open By May 1
• Coronavirus: Abbott To Let More Businesses Reopen Friday

The counties with the greatest concentration of illness are:

• Harris: 39,311 cases
• Dallas: 28,131 cases
• Bexar: 15,880 cases
• Tarrant: 15,585 cases
• Travis: 12,408 cases
• El Paso: 8,035 cases
• Hidalgo: 5,447 cases
• Galveston: 4,809 cases
• Nueces: 4,472 cases
• Fort Bend: 4,346 cases
• Collin: 3,825 cases
• Denton: 3,459 cases
• Hays: 3,243 cases
• Williamson: 3,151 cases

The top ten counties with the most fatalities are:

• Dallas: 410.
• Harris: 407.
• Tarrant: 248.
• Travis: 151.
• El Paso: 144.
• Bexar: 137.
• Hidalgo: 75.
• Cameron: 70.
• Fort Bend: 59.
• Lubbock: 56.