Judge Lina Hidalgo updates nation on Harris Co. COVID-19 status

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo updated Harris County's COVID-19 status to the nation on This Week.

Hidalgo said that ever since before Memorial Day, there's been a nonlinear increase in hospitalizations.

"What we are seeing is that wishful thinking is neither good economic policy nor good public health policy," she said.

Although she said she thinks Gov. Greg Abbott's statewide mask order will make some difference, she believes the state reopened too early, too much.

"If we had stayed shut down for longer and opened more slowly, we would probably be in a more sustainable place in our economy," said Hidalgo.

She said she doesn't think a city like Houston that experienced the mess of Hurricane Harvey should be putting itself in a position to wait for its healthcare workers to be overburdened with ICU's that are full.

"We're always going to be behind, and the virus will always outrun us, and so, what we need to do right now is to do what works, which is a stay at home order," Hidalgo said. "We don't have room to experiment."