EL PASO, Texas – El Paso County officials ordered a two-week shutdown of non-essential activities Thursday after the area's medical resources were overwhelmed by the illness caused by the novel coronavirus. Grocery and drug stores, funeral homes, health care services and government activities were among the activities deemed essential. Yet each day for the past week, more than 1,000 new cases were confirmed in the westernmost Texas county. America’s largest state prison system reported more 332 active COVID-19 cases and 8 units in precautionary lockdown across Texas, including one in El Paso as of Wednesday. The 119 newly reported COVID-19 fatalities raised the Texas death toll to 17,819 since the pandemic first struck at the start of March.