What Governor Abbott Really Said About the COVID-19 Case Surges That the Statewide Media Doesn't Want You to Know

AUSTIN, TX — While the number of positive test results of COVID-19 climb in Texas, Governor Abbott stressed that hospital capacity was plentiful and some of the reporting of the rising number of positive COVID-19 positive results need to be considered in context. Abbott warned that in some counties, the numbers are climbing because young adults are getting infected in greater rates than in the past months, particularly in Hays County where Texas State University is located and in the beach city of Galveston.

In reviewing the good news, Abbott noted that Texas has the second lowest death rate from COVID-19 of any state in the U.S. In all 22 of the Trauma Service Areas (TSA) of Texas, hospital beds are plentiful.

From Texas Department of Health and Human Services data, the rate of daily increase has settled into a rate of 2.3 percent increase in positive test results per day. Prior, from March 3 until May 31, the daily rate of increase averaged 14 percent.

During his press conference Tuesday, Abbott reviewed two days this month when Texas COVID-19 infection cases were the highest since the response to the pandemic began. He said those days of large increases should be viewed in context.

For example, in Jefferson County where Beaumont is, the county recorded 537 positive cases in a batch of tests from the state and federal prisons there. In the days leading up to the prison surge, Jefferson County reported only about 23-15 positive test results per day.

In Pecos County, 92 positive test results were released by the State and it was determined later that it was an error. The clerk had entered a “92” instead of the actual “2” cases.

“If you look at these two counties, you can see why there was a massive spike in cases,” Abbott said. He said these spikes inform him where the State needs to respond to help the county get the COVID-19 outbreak under control. Previously, in a meeting with President Donald Trump in the White House, Abbott said the State is closely watching senior care centers, prisons and meat packing facilities.

The Amarillo area experienced a one-day surge in COVID-19 positive test results of 734 last month due to the State’s mass testing of a Tyson meat processing facility there. Abbott said that situation is now under control during the press conference.

In Collin County in the Metroplex, the case count surged to 120 in one day. Abbott attributed that to a mass testing of a long term care facility there. In Rusk County Wednesday, the positive results surged to 104. Abbott said this was due to mass testing at a prison located there.

Abbott said the State is aggressive in testing residents and staffs at nursing homes where testing in those facilities is at 100 percent. He said a majority of the inmates in jails and prisons in Texas have been tested. Jails and prisons generally have the highest incidents of positive test results, he said. Texas will see positive test results from inmates will begin to decline as testing in jail facilities approaches 100 percent.

One problem area Abbott pointed out was the number of young adults in some Texas counties where positive test results are climbing. Abbott said that in Hays County, where Texas State University is located in San Marcos, the COVID-19 case count surged from flat number of new cases per day to 265 new positives in just one day, on June 16. He blamed bar-like settings and mentioned anecdotal evidence of photos on social media where people in what appeared to be bars were not social distancing.

Abbott said the Texas Alcohol Beverage Commission, the TABC, has been tasked with enforcing social distancing protocols in bars. Bar owners caught allowing those protocols to be violated face a 30-day suspension of their liquor license. A second violation could bring a 60-day suspension.

Abbott said that Texas is more prepared in mid-June to handle COVID-19 at health care facilities and hospitals than in March when the pandemic response began.

“There is only one county in Texas where COVID-19 hospitalizations exceed 10 percent of the beds available,” Abbott said.

Health care facilities have adequate PPE, he added. Abbott mentioned new drug therapies that are showing promise, like the anti-viral drug remdesivir. This drug that is administered via intravenous infusion (IV) has not been approved by the FDA for the general market. However, it is approved for testing in controlled environments.

Abbott closed the press conference taking questions from the press. The governor stressed the importance of opening the public schools in the fall for the health and welfare of Texas children and their parents. He sounded upbeat about college football being played in stadiums at 50 percent capacity. He said he recently was on a conference call with state college and university athletic directors coordinating what that will look like in the fall. College football will be played, he said.

Abbott suggested wearing a mask when in close proximity of others and to continue to stay home when there is no need to go out to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

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Update: Hays County contacted us via Twitter and updated their numbers:

• Friday, June 12: 99
• Sat, June 13: 142
• Sun, June 14: 54
• Mon, June 15: 69
• Tues, June 16: 155

The Hays County total over that five day period was 519 new cases.