Texas reports 324 new coronavirus deaths
State health officials reported 324 additional COVID-19 deaths Wednesday, bringing the state coronavirus death toll to more than 9,000.
The latest deaths occurred over the past week or more, as the Texas Department of State Health Services is now relying on death certificates instead of local health reports to tally deaths.
But COVID-19 hospitalizations have been on the decline, with the state health agency reporting 7,028 patients in Texas hospitals Wednesday.
Gov. Greg Abbott pointed to the declining number in a pair of news conferences Tuesday but said it “remains too high” for the state’s health care system.
And the state health agency reported 6,200 new confirmed cases Wednesday. The number of new single-day cases generally has been declining since a high of 10,791 on July 15.
The total number of cases in Texas crossed 500,000 Tuesday. The agency estimates that more than 130,000 of those are active.
Active case numbers are calculated by taking the number of active cases and subtracting fatalities and recoveries, a number that also is an estimate.
Meanwhile, testing in the state has declined in recent weeks, while the percent of people testing positive among those tested, known as the positivity rate, has continued to climb.
The Texas Department of State Health Services reported a rolling seven-day positivity rate of 24.5% for Tuesday, the latest data available.
The positivity rate surpassed 20% for the first time Saturday. The rate was around 12% two weeks ago.
Abbott has said the positivity rate should remain below 10%. The World Health Organization advised governments that before allowing businesses to reopen, the number should remain at 5% or lower for at least 14 days.
Texas is among 38 states that do not meet that criteria, according to Johns Hopkins University’s coronavirus resource center.
Abbott said Wednesday that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services extended operations for four temporary COVID-19 surge testing sites in Harris County.
The sites will remain open through Aug. 29, according to the governor’s office.
"COVID-19 testing is a top priority in the state of Texas, and the extension of these sites will help to mitigate the spread of the virus in Harris County," Abbott said.
Abbott also announced that he will travel to Lubbock and El Paso on Thursday to meet with local officials and provide an update on the state’s response to the coronavirus.
The trip comes two days after traveling to Victoria and Beaumont to meet with local officials there on coronavirus issues. Last week, he held coronavirus news conferences in San Antonio, McAllen and Dallas.
It’s a departure from his strategy during July, when he held no news conferences focused solely on the coronavirus, even as new cases and hospitalizations surged, and instead gave frequent interviews on local TV newscasts from his Austin television studio.