Texas News Texas’ Fast-Rising COVID Case Count Tied To Delta Variant And Low Vaccination Rates KWBU | By Texas Standard Published July 22, 2021 at 12:37 PM CDT Twitter LinkedIn Email Listen • 10:17 Gabriel C. Pérez/KUT News UT-Austin School of Nursing student Emily Houston holds a vial of COVID-19 vaccine Pfizer BioNTech during injections to health care workers at Dell Medical School in Austin. The state’s chief epidemiologist says the “steepness” of the increase the cases now is similar to what happened during the early months of the pandemic.