By Jeremy Wallace AUSTIN BUREAU
President Donald Trump held up Houston as evidence of encouraging signs in the battle against COVID-19 during his daily press briefing in Washington on Monday.
“Cases in New York area, New Orleans, Detroit, Boston and Houston are declining,” Trump said from the White House.
However, Harris County has continued to see cases of COVID-19 increasing. Earlier Monday, Texas reported the total number of cases in Harris County had topped 5,800 and 98 people in the county have now died.
But it is true Harris County has seen a recent decrease in the number of newly reported cases of the virus compared to earlier in April. On Monday, 101 new cases were reported. That is almost one-third of the cases that were being reported at times in early April. As recently as last week, that county reported nearly 200 new cases on one day.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner acknowledged numbers are improving some but warned cases are still emerging.
“I know the numbers are favorable, but every day almost we are adding to the number of people testing positively for COVID-19, and sadly today we are reporting four individuals who have lost their lives to this corona-virus,” Turner said in a briefing Monday before Trump’s briefing.
Turner stressed caution.
“I want to emphasize, as steps are being taken to reopen, I simply want to put forth a cautionary note that the virus is still prevalent, and there are still things we need to do,” he said.