Texas Gov. Abbott says declining COVID numbers, day with zero deaths prove opening economy was 'right move'

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday took a victory lap over his state's low coronavirus case numbers – and that Texas even had a single day without a COVID death last week – despite harsh criticism he received for lifting all of his state's virus-related restrictions in March.

"The numbers just continue to improve. To put all of this in context, from the very beginning many businesses remained open," Abbott said of his state's coronavirus response. "In March we had the entire economy open up 100% and no more masks. And of course President Biden and the Democrats railed against it. You heard what President Biden said. Other Democrats said that I had issued a death warrant."  "We continue to have a decline in deaths after we opened up 100% until we reached that mark of a day with zero deaths. And hospitalizations continue to go down even more," Abbott added. "Yesterday was the lowest positivity rate that we've had on record during the history of the entire pandemic. And so it shows that the right move was to make sure that we did open up, get things back to normal."