TEXAS — Despite the fact that earlier this week Texas Gov. Greg Abbott suggested in an interview the state is close to achieving herd immunity, data made available by the Department of State Health Services Tuesday shows new cases of COVID-19 trending upward.

"When you look at the senior population, for example, 70 - more than 70% of our seniors have received a vaccine shot, more than 50% of those who are 50 to 65 have received a vaccine shot. I don't know what herd immunity is, but when you add that to the people who have acquired immunity, it looks like it could be very close to herd immunity," Abbott told Fox News host Chris Wallace Sunday. 

DSHS Tuesday reported 4,370 new confirmed cases of the virus as well as 1,051 new probable cases. In addition, 54 more fatalities in Texas were attributed to the virus.

DSHS is currently reporting 3,022 Texans are hospitalized with the virus.

More than a million vaccine doses this week arrived in Texas but a guidance from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has temporarily halted the administration of the vaccine produced by Johnson & Johnson in the state.

At issue is six cases in which women who received the drug developed potentially dangerous blood clots.

More than 500,000 doses of the single-dose J&J vaccine have been administered in Texas, and health officials say none of the six reported cases of blood clots occurred in the state.

Providers will continue offering the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines as planned.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that they were investigating unusual clots that occurred six to 13 days after vaccination. The clots occurred in veins that drain blood from the brain, and the patients also had low platelet counts. All six cases were in women between the ages of 18 and 48, including one who died.

More than 6.8 million doses of the J&J vaccine have been given in the U.S., the vast majority with no or mild side effects. The potential adverse reactions appear to be extremely rare, occurring in fewer than one in every million recipients.

DSHS currently reports that 9,415,753 Texans have received at least one dose of vaccine, 5,831,374 are fully vaccinated and 14,689,729 total doses of vaccine have been administered.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.