Coronavirus News

Dallas County sees yet an even deadlier day for COVID-19 cases

It's still an ugly little thing.

Photo courtesy of the CDC

UPDATE 4-30-2020: As of 11 am on April 30, Dallas County Health and Human Services is reporting 179 additional positive cases of 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19), bringing the total case count in Dallas County to 3,531, including 104 deaths. Those deaths include a Balch Spring resident in his 20s who had been critically ill in a hospital.

This number surpasses the previous April 28 peak (below), and is now the highest number of daily reported COVID-19 positive cases thus far.

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One day after Gov. Greg Abbott issued an order to reopen the state of Texas, Dallas County experienced its largest number of confirmed coronavirus cases so far.

As of 11 am on April 28, Dallas County Health and Human Services reported 135 additional positive cases of 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19), bringing the total case count in Dallas County to 3,240, including 94 deaths.

The additional deaths included not just the elderly victims that have dominated the tally so far, but also some younger patients including:

A 17-year-old girl from Lancaster, who died at a hospital
A Dallas male in his 30s, who died at a hospital
A male in his 30s and resident of Garland, who had been in a hospital critically ill
A man in his 40s from Carrollton, who had been in a hospital critically ill
A man in his 40s from Lancaster, who had been critically ill in a hospital

"Unfortunately, today is our deadliest day and also the day with the most cases," said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins at a press conference. "My prayer is that this has been a strange three days and it'll drop precipitously tomorrow, but I don't know."

Jenkins said that he'd encouraged Gov. Abbott to heed the guidelines set by the CDC, as well as advice from local health authorities such as Dallas County Health and Human Services director Dr. Philip Huang before reopening the state.

"President Trump and the CDC say that you don't want to loosen restrictions until you have two things: two weeks of decline, and sufficient testing, and we don't have either of those," Jenkins said. "Last week, we saw a dip and were hopeful, but today's numbers are clearly not a decline."

Jenkins said that they're also not seeing a decline in hospitalizations — "they're inching up a bit," he said.

"Texas is a big state, but the situation on the ground may look different in Abilene than it does in Dallas," he said. "But we have orders from the governor of Texas, so we are going to have to survive and thrive under those orders, whether we agree with those orders or not."

"The law allows the governor to come in and say, 'I'm not bound by CDC guidelines, I'm not bound by President Trump, I want to try something different," he said. "But that's not the best guiding star for your family. It should be the epidemiologists. What do the infectious disease doctors say? What do the public health professionals say? That's the best way to keep your family safe."

Weed News

Texas AG Ken Paxton sues Dallas over decriminalization of marijuana

Photo courtesy of US Fish & Wildlife

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The City of Dallas has been sued by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for its efforts to decriminalize marijuana.

According to a release, Paxton has sued the city for adopting a city charter amendment that would decriminalize marijuana-related offenses and prohibit police from enforcing Texas law.

That amendment was Proposition R, or Dallas Freedom Act, which decriminalizes possession of four ounces of marijuana or less. Voters passed the amendment in the November 5 election, with 67 percent voting in favor.

The lawsuit, filed against the Dallas City Council, alleges that Proposition R is unconstitutional and violates Texas drug laws criminalizing any amount of marijuana.

Paxton says that cities can't "pick and choose which state laws to follow." He's proposing a permanent injunction to stop Proposition R from going into effect.

"The City of Dallas has no authority to override Texas drug laws or prohibit the police from enforcing them," says Paxton in a statement. "This is a backdoor attempt to violate the Texas Constitution, and any city that tries to constrain police in this fashion will be met swiftly with a lawsuit by my office.”

Before the recent election, possession of two to four ounces of marijuana could result in a punishment of 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine.

Ground Game Texas, the activist nonprofit that has also helped get marijuana decriminalization on the ballot in elections across Texas, first got the issue on the ballot in July with the necessary 50,000 signatures.

Dallas is not the only city to be sued; Paxton also filed lawsuits against five other cities in Austin, Denton, Elgin, Killeen, and San Marcos in January for their ballots and policies decriminalizing marijuana.

Both Austin and San Marcos had a judge overturn their cases, according to a FOX 4 report.

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