State Passes on Chance to Crack Down
on Covid Despite All-Time Texas Surge
Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside
November 25, 2020
The coronavirus set another new record on Wednesday in Texas where the state has no apparent plans to tighten restrictions that had been relaxed almost two months ago at the outset of the current outbreak that has the entire nation infected.
The Department of State Health Services added 14,648 new COVID-19 cases to the running total that the agency pegged late this afternoon at 1,130,980 with 20,950 that have ended in death. Johns Hopkins University had recorded almost 1.2 million covid infections in Texas today with 21,438 fatalities during the past nine months.
Governor Greg Abbott hasn't shown any signs of retreat, however, in terms of lockdowns or additional limitations on businesses. Abbott hasn't felt compelled to strenghten the statewide mask mandate that's appeared to have a significant effect in most major Texas cities while being roundly ignored in metros that are controlled by Republicans.
But the Republican governor may have decided that there's really nothing that he can do to stop the wild spread of the disease that people no longer fear like they did in the early days and are far more likely to catch as a consequence.
Texans are hearing more stories about friends and family members testing positive and experiencing minimal symptoms if any. Some might buy into Abbott's promise on the pandemic nearing an end thanks to vaccines and treatement therapies.
Abbott has shifted the emphasis to damage control with a run this week to El Paso with a fresh supply of a new medication that can be effective with high-risk covid patients who haven't been hospitalized. The governor shelved the testing positivity rate as the guiding metric for contagion regulation and replaced it with hospitalizations in a move made it possible for bars to open in some Republican counties including some where they've been shut down again despite the more liberal standard.
But Abbott should be feeling less pressure than ever in the management of the Texas response at a time when the virus is surging at record levels everywhere in the United States without the sense of urgency that it had spawned in the spring and summer.
Texas posted its fifth record spike in the past eight days on Wednesday - capping off a two-week stretch with almost 146,000 new cases logged here. But the state recorded 82,597 new covid infections in the past week alone - an average of 11,800 per day.
more to come ... |