Now, as states across the country are falling in line with President Biden's aggressive new mask guidance (clearly intended to encourage more holdouts to accept the vaccine) Texas is reporting a milestone that many of these critics once believed unthinkable: On Sunday, the state's Department of State Health Services reported its first day without a single COVID-19 deaths since March 21, 2020.

Confronted in an interview last month, Dr. Fauci finally acknowledged that he couldn't explain Texas' success. And President Biden memorably slammed Republicans in Texas (and in other southern states like Mississippi that followed Texas' lead) as "Neaderthal-thinking" Republicans.

That good news was quickly overshadowed when state officials reported 23 new deaths on Monday, the highest daily count in two months.

Still, as the Houston Chronicle admits, it's clear Texas has "turned a corner" and that the takeaway from the zero-death day is that the state has done remarkably well in combating COVID.

And in a social media post, Gov. Abbott recently rattled off a host of stats illustrating just how successful the state has been.

Adding to this, the state reported a record low seven-day positivity rate of 3.9% last week, and cases and hospitalizations have fallen to their lowest marks since last summer.

Funeral homes in the area rejoiced at finally seeing business return to a more normal pace.