AUSTIN, Texas — Texas surpassed 550,000 coronavirus cases Tuesday. It comes one day after the state reported more than 10,000 deaths due the virus, becoming the fourth state to do so.

“It’s a very sobering number and as we look at it, it’s a very real reminder of how serious the disease is,” said Dr. John Zerwas, a top medical adviser to Gov. Greg Abbott and the UT System Executive Vice Chancellor of Health Affairs. “We continue to have a low death rate comparatively across the United States and certainly within the region that we are.”

When asked if the state could have done more from the beginning to prevent the loss of life, Dr. Zerwas said in an interview on Capital Tonight that people need to take this disease very seriously and amplified the message of wearing masks and maintaining a social distance.

Zerwas also pointed to the declining number of hospitalizations as an indicator of whether the state is getting its arms around the disease.

“It’s not good enough where we are by any means,” he said. “The number of patients in the hospital right now is still creating a very busy time for people. But it’s not as severe. We’re not on the precipice of overrunning any of our hospitals at this time.”

On schools reopening, Dr. Zerwas said with the fairly controlled settings where masks can be worn and distancing can be kept in place, he thinks it can be done safely.

“Where we see that break down is often not the classroom setting per se, or in these structured environments. It’s outside the structured environments,” he said.

Nursing homes are structured environments but have seen outbreaks across Texas. The state has done surge testing to try to contain the spread of the virus in such facilities. Dr. Zerwas said he’s not aware of any targeted testing being developed for schools right now.