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'Have you seen your curve?' Keilar fact-checks Texas congressman
03:20 - Source: CNN
CNN  — 

A congressman from Texas claimed Wednesday that his state is holding coronavirus cases down even as the virus surges across Texas.

Republican Rep. Chip Roy told CNN’s Brianna Keilar on “Right Now” that Texas’ numbers “are going in the right direction.”

“We’ve been working to keep the curve flat, which is the exact thing that everyone said we should do in March,” he said.

Pressed by Keilar on the actual trend in Texas cases, Roy offered, “Yeah, go look at it. We’ve been holding those numbers down.”

In reality, though new cases have plateaued in the last few days, the state’s caseload has more than quintupled since June 1.

Texas is among a string of Southern states grappling with rising coronavirus cases. Texas had at least 353,000 cases and more than 4,200 deaths as of Wednesday afternoon, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

It was one of the first states to reopen in May after Gov. Greg Abbott ended Texas’ stay-at-home order and allowed businesses such as stores, malls, restaurants and theaters to reopen at limited capacity.

In late June, Abbott announced he was pausing any further phases to reopen the state as cases climbed.

While Abbott implemented a mask requirement for nearly all Texans in early July, he has kept in place a ban on local officials issuing stay-at-home orders, despite increasing pressure from leaders of major areas like Houston and Dallas.

Roy on Wednesday blamed the soaring numbers in southern Texas on “people coming across our border” from Mexico.

“We have an unsecure border and a wide-open border dealing with Mexico, who has serious issues with their virus, and we’ve got the significant problem in South Texas,” he said. “And then all of that is then circulating around because people are going back and forth across the border.”

The US and Mexico agreed to close their shared border in March to all nonessential activity. It will remain closed through at least late July. Crossings deemed essential, for things like commerce or medical appointments, are still permitted.

Still, a number of border towns in Mexico have reportedly pleaded with their government to keep cross-border movement restricted, hoping to keep workers and tourists alike from bringing the virus to Mexico from the US.

“I would love to work with Mexico to tighten our border security,” Roy said. “Let’s do it right now. Delighted to do that.”

CNN’s Allison Gordon, Matt Rivers and Karol Suárez contributed to this report.