Texas has officially hit the highest number of coronavirus cases in the United States. With 1 million cases and over 19,000 deaths in the Lone Star state, Texas officials have no plans to shut back down.
What We Know:
- According to the New York Times, new cases are popping up mostly in Harris and Dallas county. Harris County leads the way with over 166,000 cases. While Dallas County is dealing with about 107,000 cases.
- Newly acquired data from John’s Hopkins shows that, over the last two weeks, Texas’ weekly average positivity rate has risen from 7.12% to 10.72%. This goes on to surpass the nationwide average positivity rate of 6.6%.
- The data also shows that Texas’s COVID-19 death rate has risen to 10% in the last two weeks.
- AP News states that El Paso County has also become “overwhelmed” with surging hospitalizations. El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego issued a ban on all non-essential activities for two weeks, causing many non-essential businesses to shut back down. But to no avail, cases continued to rise.
As cases nationwide are beginning to pick up speed, a plan of action is desperately needed. But with elections on hold, and the Trump administration’s disregard for COVID restrictions, it is unclear if any precautions will be taken before it’s too late.
