Community Corner
Texas Surpasses New York In Coronavirus Numbers
While the Big Apple has seen a downward illness trend, Texas continues to post big number in terms of new cases and deaths.
AUSTIN, TX — Texas surpassed New York in sheer numbers of the coronavirus after adding 8,839 new cases of the respiratory illness on Friday.
The 8,800-plus cases of the illness emerging over the past 24 hours compares to 644 reported cases in New York. Texas also reported 295 new deaths on Friday compared to just five in New York. Hospitalizations also were greater in the Lone Star State, which saw 9,336 new admissions compared to 576 in New York. Another metric bigger in Texas is the positivity rate, recorded at 12 percent compared to 1 percent in New York.
Since the onset of illness, Texas now has recorded 420,946 cases of coronavirus and 6,569 fatalities, according to a Texas Department of State Health Services statistical dashboard. In that category, New York is ahead with 25,150 historical fatalities, according to the state's dashboard.
Find out what's happening in Austinfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Despite the high coronavirus rates in Texas, the state appears to be headed to a plateau in new diagnoses. The illness has spread exponentially since Gov. Greg Abbott launched an aggressive economic reopening starting May 1. In so doing, Texas was the second state after Georgia to reopen as others waited for downward illness trends.
State health officials noted new data will not be posted on the dashboard on Sunday to accommodate a scheduled upgrade to the system that processes electronic lab reports. As a result, data from Sunday will be posted with Monday's figures in the files on the "additional data" tab.
Find out what's happening in Austinfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, the counties with the hghest levels of illness are:
- Harris: 70,850 cases.
- Dallas: 49,269 cases.
- Bexar: 33,515 cases.
- Tarrant: 27,823 cases.
- Travis: 20,465 cases.
- Hidalgo: 16,646 cases.
- El Paso: 14,276 cases.
- Cameron: 10,155 cases.
- Nueces: 8,987 cases.
- Galveston: 8,605 cases.
- Fort Bend: 6,960 cases.
- Denton: 6,681 cases.
- Brazoria: 6,384 cases.
- Collin: 6,253 cases.
- Montgomery: 6,077 cases.
- Webb: 6,878 cases.
- Williamson: 5,616 cases.
- Lubbock: 5,433 cases.
- Jefferson: 5,431 cases.
- Hays: 4,297 cases.
- McLennan: 4,263 cases.
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