It has just been announced that Dallas County has extended its "stay-at-home" order into late May. The order, which was first announced in March, led to the closure of non-essential businesses and banned gatherings. Still, the number of COVID-19 cases has only been increasing, leading them to push the "stay-at-home" order to May 20.

During a commissioner's court meeting on Friday morning, the new order was put to a vote. Clay Jenkins, the Dallas County Judge, was for the order and provided COVID-19 projection models showing how the pandemic would be further affecting the city of Dallas.

As of April 3, 2020, there are 921 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Dallas County, with 17 deaths.*

After the meeting, Judge Jenkins took to Twitter to thank his fellow commissioners "for extending the declaration until May 20th."

As he states in the tweet, he believes that their "decision to put public health first sends a strong message to healthcare heroes and residents."

At the meeting, there was only a single vote against the new order due to how it's crippling local businesses.

Hopefully, this is the last time the order is extended due to rising cases in the Dallas area.

Dallas County is the first and only in Texas to make this move so far, and we'll see in the coming days — or even possibly hours — if others follow.

Around the globe, COVID-19 has caused over 55,000 deaths; 35 of those were from North Texas.