Texas reported zero COVID-19 deaths on Sunday, two months after President Joe Biden and other Democrats slammed the state’s reopening.
The state reported zero COVID-19 deaths for the first time since it started measuring them, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott announced on Twitter. Texas also reported only 388 new confirmed cases, its lowest total since March 30, 2020. (RELATED: Texas COVID Cases, Deaths Plummet After Gov. Abbott Repeals Mask Mandate)
Today Texas reported:
* 0 Covid related deaths–the only time that’s happened since data was tracked in March, 2020.
* the fewest Covid cases in over 13 months
* the lowest 7-day Covid positivity rate ever
* the lowest Covid hospitalizations in 11 months.
Thanks, Texans!
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) May 17, 2021
Abbott lifted Texas’ statewide mask mandate on March 2. “Texans have mastered the habits to keep from getting COVID,” he said at the time. Local businesses are still allowed to require masks, although many nationwide chains have begun lifting their own mask mandates.
US President Joe Biden and Texas Governor Greg Abbott (L) listen to officials at the Harris County Emergency Operations Center in Houston, Texas on February 26, 2021. – Biden is visiting Houston, Texas following severe winter storms which left much of the state without electricity for days. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci issued a warning to Texas and Mississippi, which also repealed its mask mandate on March 2. “Now is the time to keep the foot on the accelerator and not pull off because the thing that we don’t want is yet again another surge,” he said.
President Joe Biden slammed Abbott and Republican Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves for their “neanderthal thinking” in lifting their mask mandates.
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, whose state has the most COVID-19 deaths overall, claimed that Abbott’s move was “absolutely reckless.”