Governor Abbott has gone from banning municipalities from requiring masks to extending a mask order to every county with more than 20 COVID-19 cases. There are some exceptions for children under 10 and those who cannot wear masks for health reasons.. Violators could be fined up to $250, The Texas Tribune reports.
Dallas County tallied 708 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, a new record, KERA reports. Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said, “It took 92 days to reach 300 COVID-19 cases and it has taken 22 days since then to reach 700.”
Dallas County Health Director Dr. Philip Huang says that the county is expected to report more than 1,000 cases on Friday, right before the July Fourth holiday, The Dallas Morning News reports. “I think simultaneously everyone thought things were open, now we can go back to normal,” Huang said. “And now three, four weeks out, this is where we’re seeing the effects of that.”
In Tarrant County, there were 473 new cases on Thursday, and two additional deaths. Thursday’s total was more than 100 fewer than the day before, NBC 5 reports.
