The re-opening of Texas is coming in stages. State parks re-opened on Monday. The next step comes today. Medical restrictions preventing doctors from performing non-essential procedures like diagnostics testing for cancer are lifted as of today. KTRH Medical expert Dr. Joe Galati says this will be done carefully.
"We are taking internal controls. We are talking to the patients. We are making sure they have not had any exposures," Galati said.
While those restrictions lift, the city of Houston had something to smile about yesterday. For the second straight day Mayor Sylvester Turner reported no deaths from the virus. In fact the city reported just 20 cases yesterday.
"The only time we've had this number of cases has been on Sunday. We didn't have anything to report on Sunday, it was zero," Mayor Turner said. "But then during the week, we're reporting 20 cases, new cases that is. That's pretty much an all time low, since the very beginning. That's the first time we've reported back-to-back zero deaths. It's the first time."
The city's death toll is now 34, and health officials still say cases have not peaked yet.
The Greater Houston area reported 230 new cases and four deaths yesterday to raise the total to 157. The state had 888 new cases and 25 deaths for a death toll of 545.
Elsewhere:
- The Harris County Commissioners could reportedly pull the plug on the $60 million temporary medical shelter at NRG Park because it has not been needed.
- Harris County is going to have more mobile testing sites coming to areas that don't have enough access.
- The Texas Organizing Project says it will bail people out of jail to protect from the virus in Harris and Fort Bend counties. They started doing that in other areas last week..
- Retail to go starts Friday. Among the malls that will participate are Memorial City Mall, the Woodlands Mall, Willowbrook Mall, First Colony Mall, Derrbrook Mall, and the Baybrook Mall.
- H-E-B is expanding its hours from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. Those hours start Monday.
- And another sign of the economic impact. The Houston Grand Opera has furloughed 25 employees.