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Texas lowered the 500,000 mark for positive COVID-19 testing over the weekend, marking another double milestone in the state’s response to the pandemic.
Texas lowered the 500,000 mark for positive COVID-19 testing over the weekend, marking another double milestone in the state’s response to the pandemic.
Photo: Karen Warren, Houston Chronicle / Staff Photographer
Texas lowered the 500,000 mark for positive COVID-19 testing over the weekend, marking another double milestone in the state’s response to the pandemic.
Texas lowered the 500,000 mark for positive COVID-19 testing over the weekend, marking another double milestone in the state’s response to the pandemic.
Photo: Karen Warren, Houston Chronicle / Staff Photographer
Chron.com follows the latest headlines about the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on the Houston area.
4:30 pm: Texas Tribune, ProPublica finds Trump administers healthy children deported to stop the spread of COVID-19
The Trump administration has deported migrant children under the guise of trying to prevent the spread of COVID-19 – but only healthy children were deported, according to a new report from the Texas Tribune and ProPublica.
The scathing report, published Monday, describes how authorities with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement systematically deported children, despite rules requiring immigrants without accompanying minors to be transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services to see whether they are eligible for asylum. But instead, ICE began deporting the children to “prevent the introduction” of the novel coronavirus into the United States.
However, each child that was deported tested negative for COVID-19. Read the full report on Texas Tribune.
10 a.m.: The latest numbers from Houston, Texas
Texas surpassed 500,000 COVID-19 cases over the weekend and more than 8,500 dead.
From Saturday through Sunday, the statewide total of COVID-19 cases increased from 497,902 to 502,147 and deaths increased by 91 to 8,868 in total, according to a Houston Chronicle analysis of state data. This marks the 50th highest day for new cases and the 26th highest day for new deaths since the pandemic began.
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The Houston region’s cases increased by 1,305 to 120,973 in total, while the Harris County case count increased by 1,157 to 85,757 cases in total. Eighteen new deaths were reported, bringing the Houston region’s death toll to 2,073.
In other headlines, nearly 100,000 oilfield workers lost their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. In July, oil field service companies laid off about 9,300 people, bringing the total to 99,253 workers affected nationwide.
Texas accounts for more than half of the job losses.
NOTE: The numbers included in this report represent a one-day change in data from Saturday, August 8th through Sunday, August 9th. It is not yet clear how many of the state’s new cases can be assigned to inmates in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The Houston Chronicle’s analysis of data on COVID-19 now includes probable and pending cases. This change is based on interviews with multiple public health officials and epidemiologists, as well as in compliance with CDC reporting guidelines. DSHS now uses death certificate data for its COVID deaths count, resulting in some Texas counties having dramatically higher counts than others and some counties having higher numbers than state figures.
