Dallas County posted its highest single-day number of COVID-19 cases, registering 1,085 Friday, officials said. Six deaths were reported.
The record total comes on the same day as Gov. Greg Abbott's new mandatory mask order is put in effect. The requirement has been sought by local officials for weeks.
"It's going to help some. He did about half of what the doctors asked him to do" said Clay Jenkins, Dallas County Judge. "We're still pushing for him to do those other things. Things like closing those places where you can't wear your mask all the time. It's tough but you just don't need to be at Six Flags or a cigar bar right now or jammed up next to each other in spin class."
There have now been a total case count in Dallas County to 23,675, including 393 deaths.
The new single day high comes as Dallas County heads into the July 4th weekend, a time that worries Jenkins.
"The only two times we've seen a big move in the numbers, good or bad, has been bad, and that's two weeks after Easter Passover and two weeks after Memorial Day. And the reason for that is everybody is celebrating holidays and everybody is letting their guard down a little bit." he said.
Jenkins blames several factors for the increase, but the largest problem, he says, was the decision to reopen bars, something Abbott said he now has second thoughts about.
Jenkins discounts whether the protests following the George Floyd death contributed to the current problems. While the streets appeared flooded with demonstrators, some not wearing masks and many shouting, Jenkins says there are two factors to consider. First, the demonstrations were outside. Second, despite the large crowd appearance, there were relatively few people compared with the number in bars.
"When you total up the number of people who went to a Trump rally or a Black Lives Matter protest, in the whole of North Texas, that might be less than 10,000 people. When you total up all the people who went to a bar or a restaurant who let their guard down because they heard that things were better and they could relax, that's 7.6-million people." Jenkins said.
He says there could be an uptick from the protest crowds that will show in a few weeks, because it takes that long for the infected to pass the coronavirus to others, and the increase becomes noticeable.
