Outbreak in El Paso TX is filling hospitals and necessitating the Governor to send in extra resources. But today bars can open to 50% capacity with approval of local county judges.
Daily positives have been in the 3,500 range with a slight upward trend over the past few weeks, but hit 5,200 yesterday. There was a similar spike at the end of September. Not sure whether this is just clumpy data reporting or a sign that things are starting to go bad again. Given the outbreak in El Paso and a lot of relaxing of social distancing (restaurants are near capacity and weddings, and other gatherings are happening more and more).
Kids in a bunch of big metro areas in Texas will have the option of face to face instruction starting next week. The schools that have been open have offered both F2F and virtual. There have been a few significant outbreaks at high schools. But only sporadic infections in elementary and middle.
In my neighborhood, I am hearing about kids getting colds with fever, but testing negative with a quick test. Parents don't want to take their kids for a PCR test because it upsets them. The quick tests are not very accurate. This could be a point of vulnerability.
Fall has been warm across the state. A few cool fronts have just made the weather nicer. We have not really seen any "cold" air, which for Texas in the fall is lows in the 50s and highs in the 70s. Looking nationally, it seems that the current outbreaks are in the north where temps are in the 40s/50s. It seems like those are the idea temps for the virus to be able to better transmit.
I thought Texas would be in worse shape by this point in October given the relaxing of social distancing and schools starting in September. Mask wearing has definitely made a difference. But El Paso may be the canary in the coal mine for Texas for the rest of Fall.
https://kvia.com/coronavirus/2020/10/13/for-6th-straight-day-el-paso-reports-more-than-400-new-cases-1-additional-virus-death/