Gov. Greg Abbott

With Dallas County reporting 49 more new cases of COVID-19 today (Sunday, March 29), bringing the county’s total to 488 — the most in Texas — Gov. Greg Abbott announcecd today that the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center in downtown Dallas will be the site of the state’s first pop-up hospital to treat people who have the disease.

Abbott said during a press conference today that “Existing hospitals will continue to be the primary location to treat and care for those in need. But we must prepare for the worst case challenges as they arise.”

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will initially create a 250-bed hospital at the convention center with the help of the Texas National Guard. But, Abbott said, the convention center could house as many as 1,400 beds if necessary.

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson issued a statement thanking state officials for the help. “The availability of hospital beds will be crucial to saving lives in the event of a surge in COVID-19 cases. We will continue to work with Governor Abbott to ensure Dallas has the necessary resources to help us through these difficult times.”

The city Dallas’ director of emergency management told CBS Channel 11 that he hopes to see the beds in place by Tuesday. He also said that those accessing the homeless shelter facilities already set up at the convention center and those accessing the new  pop-up COVID hospital will use separate entrances, and the two separate facilities will be partitioned off from each other.

Abbott said state officials will also be looking for pop-up hospital sites in Houston, San Antonio, Austin, the Rio Grande Valley and El Paso, and wherever “COVID-19 has spread the highest” in Texas.

Meanwhile in Washington, D.C., Trump walked back his earlier calls for the country to be re-opened and the churches packed on Easter Sunday, instead extending the country-wide social distancing guidelines through April 30 and spent the morning tweeting about what great ratings his daily Coronavirus update press briefings are getting and accusing New York of selling PPEs (personal protective equipment) “out the back door.”

Now, apparently, the Magic 8 Ball is telling him that June 1 is the magic date on which COVID-19 will disappear and the economy will magically bounce back to perfection: “We can expect that by June 1st, we will be well on our way to recovery, we think by June 1st. A lot of great things will be happening.”

— Tammye Nash