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."

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Texas shocks as America's No. 3 least safe state in 2026 report

Photo by Hiroshi Kimura on Unsplash

Texas ranks as the 48th "safest" state — out of 50.

While no state is invulnerable, some do more to protect their residents than others. And a new study has declared Texas one of the five least safe states in America.

WalletHub's "Safest States in America (2026)" report examined all 50 states for their emergency preparedness and for residents' personal and residential, financial, workplace, and road safety. Factors that weighed into the rankings include specific crime rates per capita, the share of the population that is uninsured, road quality ratings, workplace injury statistics, and more.

Texas ranked at the bottom of the list as the 48th "safest" state — or the third least safe state. It's joined by several other Southern states, like Mississippi (No. 50), Louisiana (No. 49), Florida (No. 47), and Arkansas (No. 46).

According to WalletHub, Texas specifically ranks third to last in the nationwide "emergency preparedness" category, which was determined based on the prevalence of climate disasters causing $1 billion or more in damages from 1980-2024, and the loss amount resulting from those disasters.

The Lone Star State also ranked 40th (or 10th worst) across three safety categories: personal and residential safety, financial safety, and road safety. The report additionally found that Texas has the highest rate of uninsured residents nationally.

Texas' "workplace safety" was the state's highest-ranking category, landing 30th nationally.

Additional rankings that determined Texas' overall safety include:

No. 30 – Assaults per capita
No. 32 – Fatal occupational injuries per 100,000 full-time workers
No. 32 – Sex offenders per capita
No. 35 – Murders and non-negligent manslaughters per capita
No. 36 – Fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles of travel
No. 41 – Loss amounts from climate disasters per capita

According to the report, the five safest states in America are all located in the Northeast. Vermont leads as the country's safest state in 2026, followed by Massachusetts (No. 2), Maine (No. 3), New Hampshire (No. 4), and Connecticut (No. 5).

Though every state has varying levels of safety, WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo asserted that the safest places in the U.S. categorically invest in protecting their residents. Top-ranking states have low crime rates and diligently maintain their road infrastructure, and other states that prioritize their residents' safety have "strong economies and job markets that prevent people from falling into dangerous financial situations."

"[The safest states in America] have high levels of occupational safety and disaster preparedness, too," Lupo said. "In addition, states are made safer by efforts that individual residents take, such as forming a neighborhood watch or working in firefighting and EMT jobs at high rates."

safety texas wallethub reports