TEXAS — While there has been a great deal of improvement in Texas with regards to new cases of COVID-19 and hospitalizations due to it, the state is on the cusp of reaching a dispiriting milestone.

Johns Hopkins data as of Wednesday afternoon shows 48,242 deaths in the Lone Star State are attributed to COVID-19. Only California is reporting more deaths.

The university also shows 2,789,428 total COVID-19 cases in Texas and a testing positivity rate of 13.03%.

As of Monday, March 29, all Texans 16 years old and older may be vaccinated, and the state opened an online portal to connect people with vaccination appointments.

Johns Hopkins reports 13.46% of Texans are fully vaccinated. That’s 3,863,664 out of Texas’s nearly 30 million residents. At total of 11,357,324 vaccine doses have been administered.

It should be noted that Johns Hopkins number tend to be higher than state-reported numbers. The Texas Department of State Health Services currently puts the total number of fatalities attributed to COVID-19 at 47,278. It indicates 2,391,860 total confirmed cases of the disease and 386,948 total probable cases.

Austin Public Health earlier this week stated Austin and Travis County could be dropped from Stage 3 to Stage 2 of risk-based COVID-19 guidelines based on hospital admissions, the moving 7-day average of cases and other factors.