A little over two weeks after Texas abolished its mask mandate and other coronavirus mandates, its cases and hospitalizations continue to fall.
Today Texas recorded the lowest 7-day Covid positivity rate since that data began being calculated: 5.43%,” said Texas Governor Greg Abbott. “We also recorded the largest daily number of vaccines administered to Texans: 342,849. More Texans getting vaccines will keep down the positivity rate. Always voluntary.”
Biden slammed Abbott’s decision to waive its coronavirus mandates, calling it “Neanderthal thinking.”
“We’ve been able to move that all the way up to the end of May to have enough [vaccines] for every American, to get every adult American to get a shot,” said Biden earlier this month. “The last thing we need is the Neanderthal thinking.”
Texas’s trends contrast the rest of the US, which has been seeing an increase in new transmissions over the past week. Overall, the US has experienced a 7% increase, says Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky.
“I remain deeply concerned about this trajectory,” said Walensky. “We have seen cases and hospital admissions move from historic declines to stagnations and increases. We know from prior surges that if we don’t control things now, there is a real potential for the epidemic curve to soar again.”
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