Texas is turning the corner on the coronavirus, according to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.
“We are turning the situation in the state of Texas. It’s just going to take a little while, but we’re going to be fine,” Abbott told CNBC Friday morning.
“I feel like we have reached a plateau where we’ve contained the exponential growth of COVID at this particular time, but we have a lot more work to do in the coming weeks,” he added. “We don’t have COVID conquered right now.”
The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations appears to have stabilized. It hovered around 10,600 in the last week and fell to 8,858 Thursday, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. Available intensive care unit beds have also increased statewide to 1,267, up from 865 a week ago.
New cases have increased in Texas over the last few days, but that may be due to a delay in testing. Labs in Texas have a substantial backlog.
In early July, Abbott, a Republican, reimposed some restrictions, including closing bars and putting limits on elective surgery. He also mandated that masks be worn in public in most areas of the state.
