Thread by @houmayor

Today, @HoustonHealth reports 267* cases of #COVID19 today, bringing Houston’s total to 70,064.

We also have seven newly reported deaths, bringing the city’s total to 998. We are only two deaths shy of reaching a grim milestone with 1,000 COVID-19 related deaths in Houston.

I also want to share the sad news of another city of Houston employee who passed away of #COVID19. Richard Sable was a City of Houston employee, who started in 2010. Please keep his family and former colleagues in your thoughts and prayers.

Since the start of the global pandemic, the city has lost seven municipal employees and three firefighters. The virus continues to be a threat to people in our city.

We will continue to monitor the numbers for this month and next month in October.

We are also taking a cautious approach rather than an aggressive approach to reopening as we work at slowing/containing the spread of #COVID19.

Last week we announced a limited number of special events would be allowed if they followed the health and safety guidelines set forth by Dr. Persse and the Mayor’s Office of Special Events.

What the state has elected to do is the reverse.

The state is opening more as we are approaching the flu season and many of our kids are returning to school at certain levels. Those learning virtually will soon be in the classroom in a matter of weeks.

The state has taken an approach that comes with high risk.

The governor is only using hospitalizations as the primary matrix to make decisions about reopening and hospitalizations are a lagging indicator.

We have been here before. Our hospitalizations were low at the end of April, but then those numbers shot up.

Going back to March, we had 1,575 cases
•4,734 in April
•8,076 in May
•24,409 in June
•23,759 in July
•6,337 in August
•788 so far in September

We are still reporting deaths in the City of Houston.
15 in March
106 in April
89 in May
106 in June
435 in July
175 in August
10 reported so far in September

This is not the time to take a victory lap, because it undermines the messages, we give the public to take this virus seriously, to #maskup and get tested.

If people think we have conquered the virus it makes it more difficult to get them to continue wear face masks, stay home if they’re sick, wash their hands and get tested – all the measures we need them to take to contain the virus until we have a vaccine.

.@FireChiefofHFD says he expects to see an increase in calls about capacity violations as establishments open up more because 75% doesn't look a lot different than 100%.

We are still fighting #COVID19 every day. We are still having to convince Houstonians to #maskup and wash their hands. We need to get the positivity rate below 5% and *stay* there.