TEXAS — Texas has become only the second state to surpass 1.5 million total cases of COVID-19, Johns Hopkins University data indicates. The other state is California.

In fact, only 10 counties have surpassed that number.

It is important to note, however, that the Texas Department of State Health Services is currently reporting 1,352,489 cases. Johns Hopkins typically includes estimated “presumptive positive cases” in its database, driving numbers higher.

The state on Tuesday reported 14,569 new confirmed cases of the virus as well as 2,754 probable cases. A total of 205 new coronavirus-related deaths were reported.  

The Texas Department of State Health Services also on Tuesday reported 9,472 patients are being treated for COVID-19 in the state. There are 12,006 hospital beds available in the state, a dwindling 727 available ICU beds, and 7,358 available ventilators.

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Not all of the virus news is bleak. The first doses of the Pfizer vaccine arrived in Texas on Monday and were distributed in earnest to frontline health care workers beginning Tuesday morning.

The state has created a map that tracks where the vaccines are going and how many Texans are receiving them.

As of Wednesday morning, over 70,000 doses had been distributed across the state of Texas but none have been counted as administered. This number is expected to rise as hospitals are the first tier in the Texas vaccination process. Data will be collected from officials each day by midnight and the map should reflect updates daily by 4 p.m.

The first week’s distribution has gone majority to large counties such as Bexar, Travis, Harris and Dallas and other counties which have experienced a large number of cases and fatalities including Hidalgo and Nueces counties.

The data collected is broken down by age, gender and dosage. Along with the tracking technology, DSHS has also laid out important information for the public on how, when and who will receive the vaccine as more doses arrive.