Texas governor says state will be ‘guided by data’ as 13 per cent of coronavirus tests come back positive

Greg Abbott boasted of his state’s low death rate even as hospitalisations continue to surge past record levels

As Texas battles against a surge in coronavirus infections, governor Greg Abbott has acknowledged the scale of the “very swift and very dangerous” outbreak now resurging among the population.

At a press conference with vice president Mike Pence on Sunday, Mr Abbott laid out the data on what has happened recently, and explained that the state was taking new measures to curb the outbreak – even as he has declined to fully reverse the reopening that some say has contributed to the new spike.

“We need to understand that Covid-19 has taken a very swift and very dangerous turn in Texas over just the past few weeks,” said Mr Abbott. “Over just the past few weeks the daily number of cases have gone from an average of about 2,000 to more than 5,000 per day.

“At the same time, hospitalisations have increased from about 2,000 per day to more than 5,000 per day. And the positivity rate that just one month ago was at 4.27 per cent is now well over 13 per cent.”

The number of cases alone is cause for concern, but as with similar spikes across the US, some have attributed it to an expansion of testing, saying that the numbers simply mean that more asymptomatic cases are being picked up.

However, Texas is surging on the other two measures as well – indicating, as Mr Abbott acknowledged, that the data in fact shows the disease to be spreading in the state as never before.

“One thing I said from the very beginning, and that is that Texas will follow data in making decisions about how we move forward... And with a positivity rate of over 10 per cent, I declared early on it would be an alarm bell for Texas to take action to rein in the spread of Covid-19. And that’s exactly what we began to announce this past week.”

Mr Abbott did indeed announce last week that the state’s reopening will be paused until the numbers come down again. However, he has so far declined to put any reopened parts of the state economy back under lockdown, meaning businesses including restaurants, bars and gyms remain open.

Despite the new numbers, Mr Abbott celebrated Texas’s performance on one measure: the number of dead per head of population.

“One thing remarkable about Texas, that is that despite the increase in the spread of the coronavirus, Texas still has the second-lowest death rate of the top 27 most affected states in the country. We cherish the lives of our fellow Texans.”

However, it has been repeatedly pointed out that around the world, there is a time lag between reported hospitalisations and reported deaths, as Covid-19 patients can be in hospital for days or weeks before they succumb to the effects of the disease.

So with thousands of Texans now in hospital, a spike in deaths may be yet to come – whether in days, weeks or more.

Meanwhile, sitting next to Mr Abbott, Mr Pence reiterated his exhortation that Americans wear masks where social distancing is hard – and came tantalisingly close to acknowledging that the surge may have something to do with Texas’s decision to reopen its economy when it did.

“Reopening this economy, which began in early May, is a tribute to your leadership and the steady progress in putting Texas back to work,” he told Mr Abbott. “It’s something every Texan can be proud of.

“But with the development of these new cases – as you said, going from 2,000 a day to 5,000 a day; positivity rate going from roughly 4 per cent to 13 per cent – we’re grateful, governor, that you’ve taken the steps that you’ve taken to limit the kind of gatherings and meeting in certain places in communities that may well be contributing to the community spread that we’re seeing in Texas and in states like Arizona and Florida and California as well.”