AUSTIN — The death toll from the coronavirus continued to rise Thursday as Texas health officials reported a record 129 new fatalities.
It was a daily high for the second consecutive day, after Texas recorded 110 deaths on Wednesday, and marked the third time the daily death count has reached triple digits.
The statewide death toll from the virus rose to 3,561 as Thursday’s record total brought the rolling seven-day average to 92 deaths per day.
The Texas Department of State Health Services also reported 10,291 new coronavirus infections Thursday, a slight dip from the previous day’s record high for new cases.
Texas is likely to reach 300,000 total covid-19 cases Friday, just 10 days after the state crossed the 200,000 threshold.
The worst day in the US pandemic in months, if not since its beginning
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) July 16, 2020
>70,000 cases for the 1st time
Hospitalizations nearing 60,000 April peak
Deaths back up to nearly 1,000 (977)
4 key states are in v sorry shape for all metrics@COVID19Tracking
In search of a rescue, a plan pic.twitter.com/fDt7yk0jbr
It took the state nearly four months from the start of the pandemic to record its first 100,000 cases.
And while the Department of State Health Services reported nearly 156,000 covid-19 recoveries, the number is an estimate based on assumptions about recovery times and hospitalization rates, according to the agency.
As deaths and hospitalizations continue to rise, Gov. Greg Abbott has been grappling with how to rein in the pandemic.
In prerecorded comments to the Texas Republican Party’s virtual state convention Thursday, Abbott urged members of his party to follow his statewide mask order in hopes of avoiding another shutdown of businesses and services.
He pointed to the state’s hospitalization numbers, saying that, in just the past month, the number of covid-19 patients in Texas hospitals has quadrupled to more than 10,000.
The health agency also reported 10,457 patients in Texas hospitals Thursday, the seventh consecutive day the state saw more than 10,000 covid-19 hospitalizations.
“Many regions are running out of ICU beds, and deaths have almost quadrupled,” Abbott said. “If we don’t slow this disease quickly, our hospitals will get overrun, and I fear it will even inflict some of the people that I’m talking to right now.”
Abbott issued a statewide mask order earlier this month for counties with more than 20 positive covid-19 cases. He also halted elective surgeries in more than 100 counties.
The percentage of positive covid-19 tests in the state has hovered above 16% over the past five days. Abbott has said anything over 10% would be cause for concern.
Meanwhile, the Department of State Health Services announced that it had removed more than 3,000 coronavirus cases from its covid-19 dashboard because San Antonio Metro Health included antigen results in its data.
Positive results from antigen tests are highly accurate, but there is a higher chance of false negatives, according to the Food and Drug Administration. Antigen tests are considered presumptive cases by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
One small Texas hospital pushed to the limit by COVIDhttps://t.co/wV3slZhYUb
— AFP news agency (@AFP) July 17, 2020
? Mark Felix pic.twitter.com/OyikxqAVlZ
A state health agency spokesman said officials were working with local health departments to ensure they’re reporting consistently.
In a series of tweets Thursday afternoon, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg noted that the state health agency confirmed San Antonio’s “probable” cases through antigen tests are considered positive covid-19 cases.
“The antigen tests are extremely accurate in identifying positive cases of covid-19,” Nirenberg tweeted. “One benefit is they’re faster than the standard test. So in San Antonio, an antigen positive report does not mean someone ‘might’ have covid-19. It means it’s a positive covid-19 test.”
