“The numbers are going to look worse as we go into next week,” he told KRIV-TV in Houston late Thursday.

In another record Thursday, over the past seven days, 15.6% of reported coronavirus tests have come back positive.

In four television appearances just hours after the gloomy numbers were released, Abbott acknowledged his mask order is unpopular but said people simply must become familiar with “the severity of COVID-19 right now” in Texas…

“The last thing we want to do is shut things down again,” Abbott said. “The only strategy we have to prevent that from happening is by everybody wearing a mask.”