Coronavirus in Texas

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How coronavirus impacted Texas: Hospitalizations, vaccinations, cases and deaths

By Texas Tribune Staff Updated: Aug. 24, 2022

From April 2020 to August 2022, the Texas Tribune used data from the Texas Department of State Health Services to track coronavirus hospitalizations, vaccinations, cases and deaths. We stopped updating these numbers in August 2022. Full Story 

Latest coverage

• For Texans with long COVID, specialized centers can provide more effective treatments — if they can access them

  By Neelam Bohra Oct. 12, 2023

  Long COVID clinics in Texas are few and far between, often with months-long waitlists. But these centers can provide care that validates stigmatized patients, offers unique treatments and teaches physicians more about the new condition. Full Story 

• Texans brace for the end of nearly three years of pandemic Medicaid coverage

  By Eleanor Klibanoff Updated: Feb. 9, 2023

  Millions of Texans — mostly children, young adults and new moms — stayed on Medicaid for the duration of the pandemic. The state will soon start reevaluating eligibility. Full Story 

• Texas hits 1,000 days under Greg Abbott’s public health disaster as a new COVID-19 wave and legislative session loom

  By Karen Brooks Harper Dec. 8, 2022

  After more than 92,000 deaths and 8 million reported COVID-19 cases in Texas, the state remains one of less than a dozen still under a statewide disaster or public health emergency. Full Story 

• Watch Anthony Fauci speak at the 2022 Texas Tribune Festival

  By Texas Tribune Staff Sept. 22, 2022

  The nation’s top infectious disease specialist on the pandemic without end and his future plans. Full Story 

• T-Squared: We’re sunsetting our COVID-19 data tracker

  By Chris Essig Aug. 24, 2022

  After nearly two and a half years, we’re no longer tracking daily coronavirus cases, hospitalizations, deaths and vaccinations in Texas. Full Story 

• Familiar racial disparities emerge in first month of COVID-19 vaccinations for the youngest Texans

  By Karen Brooks Harper July 28, 2022

  Kids ages 6 months to 4 years became eligible for the vaccine last month. Experts say a number of factors could be hampering parents from getting their kids vaccinated. Full Story 

• Texans have been slow to vaccinate their youngest against COVID-19, but they’re slightly ahead of the national average

  By Karen Brooks Harper July 11, 2022

  For some parents of kids under 5 who want to vaccinate them, the wait has been excruciating, fraught with delays and close calls. Others are hesitant to have their young children vaccinated. Full Story 

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• Experts say Texas is ready for latest COVID-19 uptick but advise caution

  By Jason Beeferman Updated: May 23, 2022

  It’s still unclear what the increase in cases will mean for the state, but doctors and hospitals say Texas is better prepared to face a surge than before. Full Story 

• Texas will resume grading public schools based on students’ STAAR test results

  By Brian Lopez May 19, 2022

  For the first time since the pandemic, Texas schools will again be rated based on standardized tests. But for one year only, schools that receive a D or F will get a “not rated” label. Full Story 

• Looming end of federal pandemic emergency threatens to shake Texas’ Medicaid safety net, advocates say

  By Karen Brooks Harper May 16, 2022

  The federal emergency declaration is expected to last through at least mid-October and has kept states from dropping people from Medicaid rolls. Full Story 

• Some landlords got a piece of Texas’ $2 billion in rent relief money — and evicted their struggling tenants anyway

  By Joshua Fechter Updated: April 8, 2022

  It’s unclear whether landlords face any penalties from state agencies for improperly evicting tenants while receiving rent relief dollars intended to help those tenants stay housed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Full Story 

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• Texas schools won’t lose funding for attendance drops during the pandemic

  By Brian Lopez March 29, 2022

  In Texas, schools are funded based on the number of students enrolled and the daily attendance on campus. Full Story 

• The stories behind the Texans lost to COVID-19

  By Brooke Park and José Luis Martínez March 29, 2022

  Since vaccines became widely available for Texans 12 and older last May, about 82% of Texas’ COVID-19 deaths were among the unvaccinated. Full Story 

• In Laredo, a bus brigade is vaccinating Mexican citizens with COVID-19 shots that Texans aren’t using

  By Karen Brooks Harper and Jason Garza March 29, 2022

  Launched in June, a cross-border effort using buses and donated vaccines is helping roughly 2,000 Nuevo Laredo residents per day get COVID-19 shots in Laredo — 10% of Texas’ daily total. Full Story 

• Families are desperate for child care, but providers face a “roller coaster” trying to survive

  By Emily Hernandez and Kalley Huang March 15, 2022

  Although child care providers have mostly reopened, 8% have closed permanently since the start of the pandemic — and 57% of Texas counties still qualify as child care deserts. Full Story 

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• Texas big-city schools are dropping their mask mandates in response to new CDC guidelines

  By Brian Lopez March 4, 2022

  As the omicron surge dwindles, school district officials move to lift mask mandates. Full Story 

• After CDC revises COVID-19 recommendations, Dallas County narrows its mask mandate

  By Sneha Dey Feb. 25, 2022

  The federal agency’s new guidance says most healthy Americans don’t need to wear masks in public. It marks a turning point in the pandemic. Full Story 

• An end to the omicron surge is in sight, but relief comes slowly in hard-hit Laredo

  By Karen Brooks Harper Feb. 18, 2022

  COVID-19 numbers are plummeting statewide, but on Texas’ southern border with Mexico, Laredo is still battling its fourth surge. Full Story 

• Texas sues CDC to stop mask mandates on planes

  By Sneha Dey Feb. 16, 2022

  The lawsuit, filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and U.S. Rep. Beth Van Duyne, is the latest in a string of measures to limit coronavirus safety measures. Full Story 

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• From obscurity to a Nobel Prize nomination: Houston scientists acclaimed for their patent-free COVID-19 vaccine

  By Karen Brooks Harper Feb. 10, 2022

  Corbevax, a low-cost coronavirus vaccine created in Houston, could be a better weapon against COVID-19 by reaching the unvaccinated in poorer countries. Full Story