TEXAS — It’s the latest sign that COVID-19 continues to spread at an alarming rate in Texas.
On Thursday, Dallas County marked its seventh consecutive day of being above 15% of all hospital beds being occupied by virus patients. That prompted Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order to immediately reduce occupancy in non-essential businesses from 75% to 50%.
Statewide the picture is equally bleak. On Thursday, the Texas Department of State Health Services reported 22,000 fatalities associated with the virus. Only New York, in which more than 35,000 people have died due to the virus, has a higher number.
Texas on Thursday reported 13,857 new cases of the virus and 244 new fatalities.
There are an estimated 193,213 active cases in the state and an estimated 1,003,141 recoveries.
Dallas County is currently reporting 129,193 total cases of the virus, which is just behind Harris County at 193,089.
Currently, 9,151 people are hospitalized with the virus in Texas.
On Thursday, Dallas County Health and Human Services reported 2,122 additional positive COVID-19 cases. Additionally, three deaths were reported including a man in his 60s and two men in their 70s. All of them had underlying high risk health conditions.
On Friday, Johns Hopkins University reported that the U.S. has surpassed 14 million coronavirus cases. The death toll in the United States has exceeded 276,000.