Rio Grande Valley authorities reported 508 new cases of COVID-19 Tuesday along with 11 more deaths related to the virus.
Hidalgo County reported seven new deaths related to COVID-19 along with 346 more positive cases Tuesday morning.
The new data brings the total number of pandemic deaths in the county to 2,102 and the total number of cases to 46,119.
Individuals in the county hospitalized with the virus were reported at 207, with 75 of them in intensive care units.
There were 335 people released from isolation as of Tuesday.
In total, 267,088 tests have been administered in the county, with 220,448 testing negative.
Currently, there are 2,488 active cases in the county.
Cameron County reported 101 new cases Tuesday and four more deaths, bringing the total number of cases in the county to 26,937 and the total number of deaths to 1,140.
Starr County reported 61 new cases Tuesday, raising the total there to 4,639.
In statewide coronavirus response news, Governor Greg Abbott participated in a governors panel Tuesday moderated by United States Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.
Abbott commented on the state’s plan for distributing the vaccine to underserved communities in Texas.
“The way that we are going to (distribute) them is we have put together a bunch of mobile medical units that will be taking the vaccines to the people in underserved communities to make sure that they will have access to these vaccines also,” he said, noting that the vaccine would be free.
Abbott commended the White House’s efforts to fuel vaccine research at the panel and said Texas has been preparing for delivery of vaccines since the spring, a process that has accelerated in the past month or two.
“Especially in a state the size of Texas, we needed to make sure that we were able to work out the kinks, and to do that we actually ran several mock distributions in advance to make sure that when it does arrive we will have eliminated any of the potential missteps,” he said.
