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Coronavirus in Texas

How COVID-19 cases have grown in Texas' 11 most populous counties

New cases in Texas are approaching 6,000 per day, and nearly two-thirds of them have been recorded in 11 counties over the past two weeks.

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Gov. Greg Abbott speaks about the categories of medical surge facilities during a press conference at the Texas Department of Public Safety on Tuesday, June 16, 2020.
Credit: Ricardo B. Brazziell/Pool via Austin American-Statesman

In the past few weeks, Texas has become one of the nation’s COVID-19 epicenters, joining Arizona, California, Florida and other states as the new coronavirus surges across the country. Nearly two months after Gov. Greg Abbott began a phased reopening plan to revive the state’s battered economy, new infections have exploded in Texas, jumping from 1,142 on May 1 to nearly 6,000 on Thursday.

On Monday, Abbott said closing businesses again would be a “last option,” but by Friday, as new infections and hospitalizations kept soaring, he ordered bars to close and lowered restaurants' maximum occupancy from 75% to 50%. Meanwhile, some urban counties are making preparations to use convention centers and other facilities as potential overflow sites for COVID-19 patients after two straight weeks of record hospitalizations.

The charts below show COVID-19 cases in the state’s 11 most populous counties, which have recorded 64% of the state's new cases over the last two weeks.

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