White House says Texas has ‘a complete resurgence’ of COVID-19 and must do more to slow the spread

AUSTIN – The White House, reporting a “complete resurgence” of COVID-19 in Texas, says the state must do more to stop the spread of the virus.

A guide released last week calls on Texas to proactively test teachers, hospital staff and other community members for silent spreaders and drastically reduce the number of people allowed to congregate inside.

“The spread of the silent community that precedes and continues to drive these outbreaks can only be identified and stopped by proactive and targeted testing,” said the White House report released on November 22. “It must be combined with a significant behavior change in all Americans.”

The recommendations, made before the Thanksgiving holiday, were made public Monday by the Center for Public Integrity.

The White House Coronavirus Task Force has been producing detailed reports for all 50 states since June. Each report contains county-level statistics on the spread of the virus, along with recommendations tailored to each state. But the reports are not widely available, making it difficult to assess whether some states have followed the guidelines.

Governor Greg Abbott declined to answer questions on the report’s recommendations on Monday. Instead, spokeswoman Renae Eze said the state was sending resources and medicine to hard-hit areas and suggested local authorities do more to enforce occupancy limits and hide orders.

As winter approaches, COVID-19 cases are skyrocketing across the country. While the latest report placed Texas in the “red zone” for its high level of coronavirus cases, much of the country is worse off. The report ranks Texas 34th in per capita cases.

Still, the report states that Texas has seen an “ever-growing and unsustainable increase in hospital admissions” and “mitigation efforts must be stepped up.”

He suggests that the state drastically reduce capacity or shut down public spaces where masking is not possible.

Abbott has resisted some calls to tighten COVID-19 restrictions ahead of Thanksgiving, as public health experts have warned cases could increase with people traveling to visit family.

Under its current order, many businesses in Texas, such as restaurants, bowling alleys, and movie theaters, are open at 75% capacity. Regions must downsize when at least 15% of hospital beds are occupied by patients with COVID-19 for seven consecutive days.

Six have already pulled the trigger, forcing restaurants and some other businesses to limit capacity to 50 percent. They include counties from Panhandle to El Paso, in addition to the areas around Waco and Laredo. Seven other regions, including one that covers Dallas and Fort Worth, have reached the threshold for hospitalization several days in a row, but have not reached the one-week mark.

If hospitalizations continue to rise, the state may need to consider other measures, said David Lakey, vice chancellor for health affairs and chief medical officer for the University of Texas System.

“If they increase significantly, they will have to strongly consider pulling back on some of the businesses that are open,” he said.

Since transmission is so widespread, it is often impossible to determine where someone is catching the virus.

“As seen nationally, we have heard reports from local jurisdictions throughout the pandemic that a significant amount of the spread is attributable to smaller gatherings of family and friends,” he said. State Department Health Services spokesman Chris Van Deusen said.

On Monday, the state health department reported that 8,900 people had been hospitalized with COVID-19 in Texas. When the state first hit this level in July, Abbott had already issued a statewide mask order that is still in place and temporarily closed bars.

Dallas County has its highest infection rate since the start of the pandemic, with 53 new cases per 100,000 people every day. Cases continue to emerge in the community at large, but also in long-term care facilities, homeless shelters, group homes and halfway houses, the Dallas County judge said Monday, Clay Jenkins, in a statement.

Even though Texas has dramatically increased its testing capacity since the outbreak began, the White House report calls for more proactive community testing to look for asymptomatic spreaders.

Some universities, correctional facilities and nursing homes have already performed such tests. The state has distributed nearly one million test kits to 496 school systems, including Dallas ISD, according to the Texas Education Agency.

The report recommends testing representative community groups, such as teachers, community college students, county workers, staff in crowded settings, all hospital staff, and large private sector employers. It also suggests that the state is starting to schedule weekly testing of all students once they return to campus this winter.

While widespread testing can be helpful, it is also voluntary, so some people may not participate because a positive result and subsequent quarantine could cost them their jobs, Lakey said.

“Testing like this is useful,” he said, “but it cannot replace these other community-based mitigation strategies.”

While some states have released the White House task force reports to the public, Texas has not.

This summer the White House said The morning news from Dallas he was unable to publish the reports and suggested asking Abbott. When The news Abbott asked, his office said he needed to check with the White House.

After hearing from the White House for several months, it was only this week that the governor’s office announced that it would begin publishing the reports.

As such, it’s still unclear what the White House task force recommended for Texas for most of late summer and fall.