AUSTIN, Texas -- As the state began another round of reopening businesses Friday, Texas passed a grim milestone. State health officials reported more than 1,000 deaths due to COVID-19.

The 31 additional deaths Friday were about a three percent increase from Thursday. The state also reported 36,609 cases which was also an increase of about 3 percent from the previous day. The case increase comes as the state ramps up testing, with results from nearly 22,000 tests reported Friday. That's the second-highest daily total since testing began.

Still it’s below the governor’s goal of 25-30,000 tests per day. In an interview on Capital Tonight Friday, he said that will be ramping up.

“We are aware of what the president and the vice president talked to us about earlier this week and that is what they are providing to the states, is the capability of testing about two percent of the population of the state each month. In Texas, that would amount to about 20,000 people per day and then in addition to that, we have the private testing taking place,” Gov. Abbott said. “I think as we get through the month of May, we will get up to that [25K-30K] standard.”  

The governor also addressed taking jail time off the table for people who violate his coronavirus orders. 

“No one should lose their liberty simply because of something that is no fault of their own, and that's why I wanted to remove the prospect of putting someone behind bars for violating the state or local orders,” he said.

Abbott says while jail time has been removed, other punishments such as fines or license suspensions still apply. When asked whether there would be any situation where he would consider reinstating jail time, he said no.

Earlier this week, the governor also mentioned a scenario of starting schools earlier and then possibly taking a long winter break out of concern about a second wave in the winter months.

“It's a concept to look at,” he said. “We want to make sure that as we head into the winter months, we will have a good grasp of both the traditional flu and the possibility of COVID-19 coming back at that time, and so the more time students and teachers have off in the winter months, the better their safety and the better the hospital availability will be,” he said.

Click the video link above to watch our full interview with Gov. Abbott.