Mayor Turner announces 5 new COVID-19 deaths in Houston

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Houston healthcare workers are about to get an influx of additional supplies to help battle COVID-19. During a news conference on Tuesday, Mayor Sylvester Turner announced nine Jack In The Box franchise owners in Houston and Baytown are donating 50,000 masks to health care workers.

Turner also announced five new COVID-19 related deaths and 40 new cases. That brings the city's total to 2,279 cases with 23 deaths. So far, 225 people in Houston have recovered. The total cases in southeast Texas climbed to 5,656 with 101 deaths.

The latest deaths in Houston include a Hispanic woman in her 90s, a white woman in her 90s, a white man in his 80s and two black men in their 70s and 50s, all with underlying health conditions.

In addition,Texas is reporting up to 14,624 cases with 1,409 patients in hospitals across the state.

The latest numbers came on the heels of Monday's announcement that the city's testing capacity has doubled and will now perform 1,000 tests per day. Anyone can now get tested at one of the city's free testing sites, whether a person is experiencing COVID-19 symptoms or not.

Harris County Public Health expanded its testing capabilities and is now able to test 500 people per day at two of its public testing sites.

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