HOUSTON – Houston-area official reported 275 new cases of coronavirus Saturday, marking the biggest one-day gain yet.
The city of Houston added 163 new positive cases alone, bringing the city’s total count to 232, according to Mayor Sylvester Turner. The spike is a result of a batch of reports received by the department from area medical providers.
Harris County trailed with 53 new cases reported Saturday, bringing the county’s total to 213. Montgomery County had 16 new cases for a total of 63.
Officials in Houston and Brazos County each announced one new coronavirus-related death.
A Houston woman in her 70s died at a local hospital Friday, the same day she received positive coronavirus results, according to Dr. David Persse of the Houston Health Department.
"Our city, unfortunately, will likely see more deaths as this pandemic touches the lives of more people in our community," Persse said in a release.
While a man in his 80s that was in hospice care died in Brazos County, officials said.
Turner said the number of confirmed cases in Houston is not representative of community spread.
"We know there are more cases in the city of Houston," he said. "The number is going to rise as we do more testing."
Houston has one testing facility at Bulter Stadium available to the public. The facility began by testing symptomatic high-risk groups, such as first responders, healthcare workers, and individuals 65 years and older. Recently, the facility started to evaluate all individuals with coronavirus-related symptoms.
Symptomatic residents in Harris County and Fort Bend can receive COVID-19 testing through public and private healthcare providers.
“We can slow this down,” Persse said. “History has shown in different pandemics when the community comes together and does the right thing, both on the individual level and the government level; then we can successfully slowing this down. That is what we anticipate to happen.”
Here is the breakdown of new cases on Saturday, March 28:
Austin County: 1
Brazoria County: 9
Brazos County: 9
Chambers County: 2
Fort Bend County: 4
Galveston County: 11
Harris County: 53
Houston: 163
Montgomery County: 16
Polk County: 1
San Jacinto County: 1
Washington County: 5
Total of new cases in the Houston-area: 275