Originally posted by Adam_PoE
[b]Gerald O. Glenn held a church service on March 22nd despite warnings about social distancing. During the sermon, he preached about not being afraid of death, telling the congregation, "I firmly believe that God is larger than this dreaded virus." The Virginia pastor has since died from the coronavirus, and four of his family members are now battling it themselves. His daughter, Mar-Gerie Crawley, said in a Facebook post days later that she, her husband, her sister, and her mother, Marcietia Glenn, "are all currently fighting this virus." [/B]
Texas Reports All-Time Daily High of COVID Cases
"Today, Texas will report an all-time high in the number of cases of people testing positive" for the coronavirus, Gov. Greg Abbott said Tuesday, adding that for the first time, his state would surpass 5,000 new cases in a single day.
Hours later, the Texas Department of State Health Services reported 5,489 new cases.
Abbott initially revealed the daunting new record during an interview with TV station KBTX in which he urged people to take the deadly disease seriously, telling them to wear a mask in public, stay home when possible, and take other precautions.
"The hospitalization rate is at an all-time high," he said. "The coronavirus is serious. It's spreading in Brazos County, across the entire state of Texas."
Texas is seeing a sharp rise in cases; it was just days ago that the state crossed the 4,000-case mark for the first time in its daily tally.
New cases have hit the Houston area so hard that the Texas Children's Hospital is now admitting adult patients. The move comes despite the fact that Houston is home to the massive Texas Medical Center—deemed the largest medical center in the world.
Texas has steadily boosted its capacity to test for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, but experts said that's not enough to explain the flood of new cases.
"Probably the greater factor that's pushing our numbers up is that the positivity rate is now gone from around 3% to around 9%—that's a threefold increase," said Dr. David Persse, public health authority for the Houston Health Department, according to Houston Public Media.
Texas is facing "a steep terrifying rise" in COVID-19 hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions at the Texas Medical Center, said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, in a tweet about the current situation.
"We now face a public health crisis," Hotez added.
The dramatic new numbers do not represent a second wave in Texas, which was among the first states to start the reopening process. The state health department's graph of daily new cases shows a steady rise since the COVID-19 pandemic began to take hold in March. The curve began to arc even higher earlier this month, continuing with Tuesday's spike.
Abbott has urged people to observe social and physical restrictions to curb the coronavirus. He recently called the idea of shutting down the Texas economy again "the last option" to fight COVID-19.
"Texans have shown that we don't have to choose between jobs and health—we can have both. We can protect lives while also restoring livelihoods."
Coronavirus live news: Texas to halt reopening as cases soar while virus may have hit more than 20m Americans
Friends cousin who works for Sikorsky visits relatives. Gets sick with virus, and so do they.
At least one of them was a very close case, got very sick.
Don't let anyone tell you not to be cautious, or that this is only a flu not worth worrying about. Wear the damned masks, and take the appropriate precautions.
Originally posted by Silent Master
So, all these protesters and counter-protesters are morons?
Could be.
From what I'm seeing here in CT at least, there are a lot of people in newly reopened businesses, overpopulated, in close contact, and maskless.
I'm sure mass gathering in protest doesn't help, but if they kept a distance and wore masks that should have mitigated the chances of becoming infected.
Oh no way you're a CT guy? I'm on the border of you mate in Western MA.
I went to a protest myself a few weeks ago and it was endless masks. I don't recall seeing anyone without one. Weirdly enough, wearing a mask seems to be a political issue - and with the protests being more liberal leaning, and conservatives protesting AGAINST wearing masks, there's a really weird back and forth going on.