Texas Gains 8K-Plus New Coronavirus Cases In All-Time High

AUSTIN, TX — Texas health officials recorded more than 8,000 new cases of the new coronavirus on Wednesday — a single-day record, and more than 1,100 from the increase reported the previous day. In the same 24-hour period 57 more deaths brought the historical fatality count to 2,481.

Data found on a statistical dashboard maintained by Texas Department of State Health Services officials show the number of confirmed cases statewide so far now has climbed to 168,062, with 87,566 recoveries. As of Wednesday, there are 78,025 active cases of the growing respiratory illness for which there is no vaccine.

In a state of some 30 million residents, the dashboard indicates Texas has conducted 2.2 million tests. No longer co-mingling viral and antibody tests together as they originally did — which artificially inflated the level of viral tests to screen active illness diagnoses — state officials reported that 1.9 million viral tests have been conducted along with 197, 088 antibody screenings.

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The surge in new cases supplants a single-day record set on Tuesday, when nearly 7,000 newly diagnosed cases were added to the daily tally. Another 21 deaths were added to the fatality count on that day as well.

Texas counties with the highest levels of illness as of Wednesday so far are:

• Harris: 31,422 cases, 693 more than on Tuesday.
• Dallas: 21,388 cases, 651 more.
• Tarrant: 12,344 cases, 605 more.
• Bexar: 12,065 cases, 1,268 more.
• Travis: 9,527 cases, 558 more.
• El Paso: 6,124 cases, 196 more.
• Hidalgo: 3,982 cases, 440 more.
• Fort Bend: 3,782 cases, 60 more.
• Galveston: 3,293 cases, 231 more.
• Collin: 2,997 cases, 115 more.
• Potter: 2,885 cases

Rates of illness in the Lone Star State have risen exponentially since Gov. Greg Abbott launched an aggressive economic reopening that began May 1 with restaurants, malls and movie theaters allowed to reopen at 25 percent occupancy — a level later expanded to the currently allowed 75 percent. In subsequent phases of the reopening, virtually all other businesses across myriad industries have been allowed to reopen at the governor's direction.

Abbott was the second governor in the nation attempting to jump-start coronavirus-stalled commerce in his state — one week after his Georgia counterpart launched a similar initiative — even as health officials were calling for a need for physical distancing to help blunt the spread of illness.

Along the way, Abbott declared by executive order that both worship services and construction activity were "essential services" all but immune to health safeguards designed to blunt the spread of illness. The governor also made the wearing of protective face coverings optional rather than mandating, warning local governments not to impose punitive measures to those opting not to wear them, citing his superseding executive order.

Amid growing rates of illness since then, Abbott has recently scaled back on his own economic expansion by ordering bars to close again last Friday. That same day, he also ordered closure of all tubing and rafting operations ahead of the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

The day before, Abbott prohibited all elective surgeries and medical procedures to ensure hospital space for a potential influx of coronavirus patients. He also put a pause on his own economic expansion, which by then amounted to a schedule of greater occupancy levels allowed at already reopened businesses.

Despite the preponderance of evidence illustrating the illness surge, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Tuesday was dismissive of assessments coming from Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading expert on infectious disease, centered on the growing illness scourge nationwide — now growing at a brisk pace of some 40,000 daily cases.

Fauci has lately singled out Texas in casting it as a cautionary tale of an economy that reopened prematurely while skipping steps outlined by the White House on which reopening was contingent. Fauci, Patrick told Fox News, "...has been wrong every time on every issue. We’ll listen to a lot of science. We’ll listen to a lot of doctors, and Gov. Abbott and myself will make the decision. No thank you, Dr. Fauci.”

Patrick added in his interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham: “Fauci said today he’s concerned about states like Texas that ‘skipped over’ certain things. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. We haven’t skipped over anything. The only thing I’m skipping over is listening to him.”

Patrick doubled down on his statement on Wednesday, framing Fauci's assessments on the Texas response to the pandemic as partisan. He expounded on his premise in a lengthy statement posted on Twitter.

“On the same day that presumptive Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden announced he would put Anthony Fauci on his team if he is elected president, Dr. Fauci took a swipe at Republican states and COVID19 — specifically charging that Texas had 'skipped over' some steps in our plan to fight the pandemic," Patrick wrote. "It is notable that Dr. Fauci did not criticize Andrew Cuomo’s deadly decisions in New York or California’s strategy, whose months long draconian [sic] lock down [sic] has had no impact on case numbers there."

It's not the first time Patrick has engendered controversy when speaking of the effects of coronavirus on the state. After the state economy grounded to a halt following forced business closures in adherence to physical distancing tactics, Patrick suggested senior citizens should be willing to sacrifice themselves to reboot the economy by going shopping again amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“Those of us who are 70 plus, we’ll take care of ourselves," he said on the Fox News program "Tucker Carlson Tonight" three months ago. "But don’t sacrifice the country.” Rather than fearing coronavirus, Patrick said he feared stay-at-home orders and a stalled economy that threatened the American way of life, as NBC News reported. “No one reached out to me and said, 'As a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that America loves for its children and grandchildren?' And if that is the exchange, I'm all in,” Patrick said.