Coronavirus live updates May 19: Here’s what to know in the Dallas-Fort Worth area
We’re keeping track of the most up-to-date news about the coronavirus in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area. Check back for updates.
Texas Gov. Abbott says bars, child care can reopen from COVID; pro sports can return
Gov. Greg Abbott announced a slew of business reopenings Monday, as part of the second phase of Texas’ plan to jump start the economy amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Effective immediately, child care centers and additional personal care services, such as tattoo studios and massage parlors, may reopen. By Friday, restaurants may increase their capacity to 50% and bars may open their doors to in-person customers at 25% occupancy.
Many entertainment venues can also reopen Friday, and later this month summer camps and youth sports may resume, in addition to professional sports without in-person spectators. Texas schools can offer in-person summer school classes as soon as June 1 — but attendance cannot be mandatory.
“Let’s be clear, COVID-19 still exists in Texas,” Abbott said Monday from the Texas Capitol. “Our goal is to find ways to coexist with COVID-19 as safely as possible.”
Some businesses that have been shut down since the start of the pandemic, like bars and tattoo parlors, have clamored to reopen as a growing number of Texans and some conservative lawmakers have defied Abbott’s restrictions.
Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers warned the state has yet to consistently meet benchmarks set by public health experts or Abbott himself. The additional reopenings come days after Texas saw its highest daily totals of new COVID-19 cases and deaths last week.
While most of the state receives the green light to reopen additional businesses, the counties of El Paso, Randall, Potter, Moore and Deaf Smith won’t be permitted to begin the second phase until May 29 because of a surge in cases in those areas.
Fort Worth bar owners skeptical of how coronavirus restrictions will work when reopening
Bar owners across Fort Worth started to plan re-opening operations Monday afternoon after Gov. Greg Abbott announced bars can open Friday at limited capacity.
Bars across Texas can open their doors to in-person customers at 25% capacity, Abbott said Monday, and restaurants may increase their capacity to 50%.
Poag Mahones’ staff met Monday afternoon to discuss how they would make the restrictions work, co-owner Glenn Keely said. While the bar expected limited capacity and social distancing criteria, staff were surprised by the state’s order that bars cannot serve customers at the bar counter.
“The big caveat was we can’t serve people out of our bar tops,” Keely said. “You’re talking about trying to change in four days how bars have ran since the dawn of time.”
Still, Keely said the bar will figure out how to make the new rules work at Poag Mahones on Carroll Street and Thomson’s downtown. Staff are eager to get back to work, although Keely is worried about the amount of money the bars will be able to make operating at only 25%.
He also was frustrated that restaurants can serve customers at bar tops, but bars cannot.
“What makes us a little perplexed is when you talk about the spread of a disease of this nature and mitigating the spread, why is it OK for one sector of our business to operate in that fashion, but we’re not allowed to?” he said.
Fort Worth Chef Jon Bonnell, who has been a spokesman for the city’s independent restaurants, said any additional capacity will improve a restaurant’s bottom line, but he wasn’t sure increasing to 50% would matter much if social distancing is kept at 6 feet. Many restaurants spaced tables out to meet the 6-foot requirement and barely reached 25% capacity, he said.
“I think the good news is we’re all in the mood to move forward,” he said. “We want to open as much as possible, but we also want to be as safe as we can.”
Fort Worth-area bars will reopen soon. Here’s how to reduce COVID risk if you go out
Tarrant County will follow the state’s lead and let bars, bingo halls, bowling alleys and other businesses reopen to limited crowds on Friday — and allow summer camps and professional sports without in-person fans by the end of the month.
“We are moving closer to trying to open things back up,” Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley said Monday, after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced phase two of reopening Texas. “I don’t disagree with that one bit.”
Nonessential businesses were closed in March to slow the spread of coronavirus and to make sure that there were enough hospital beds for anyone who came down with the illness.
As of Monday, there were 2,233 available hospital beds and 434 available ventilators in Tarrant County, where 210 patients with coronavirus are in the hospital.
“We still have plenty of available hospital beds,” Whitley said. “That was the goal from Day One.”
Whitley said he realizes some residents may be cautious and perhaps might keep children home from summer camps or continue working from home. Some might not be ready to go back to dining in at restaurants, even though capacity can be 50% as of Friday.
He personally said he’d like to go into his gym to see how everything is being cleaned before scheduling a time to go in to work out. Gyms were allowed to reopen Monday, with reduced capacity.
“I think people are cautious about all this,” Whitley said. “But I think they are ready to experiment with what normal will be.”
Tarrant County’s epidemic curve shows 7-day average of new cases lowest since April 5
Tarrant County reported 112 new coronavirus cases on Monday but no deaths for the first time in 20 days.
The county has confirmed a total of 4,559 COVID-19 cases, including 123 deaths and 1,478 recoveries.
The Tarrant County 7-day moving average of new COVID-19 cases is down to 51 cases, the lowest seven-day average since it was at 50 on April 5, according to the county’s epidemic curve by specimen collection date.
Public reporting of coronavirus data from Tarrant County is often slightly delayed, which can result in their press releases with updated daily new cases and deaths being sent a day or two after the deaths or test results actually occurred. For example, the most recent COVID-19 death occurred on Friday, according to the county’s website, but the county has reported at least one death in its press releases every day since April 28.
Dallas County coronavirus cases continue ‘slight downward trend’
Dallas County reported 224 new coronavirus cases and one death on Monday.
The county has confirmed 7,679 COVID-19 cases, including 177 deaths.
The latest death is a Grand Prairie man in his 60s.
“Today’s numbers continue a slight downward trend in the number of new positive cases,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said. “How well we do in continuing that trend is dependent on all of you exercising good personal responsibility choices.”
Jenkins said there is still “significant community spread, which means doctors strongly encourage you to avoid unnecessary crowds.”
“When you must go into a crowd or on public transportation, wear a cloth face covering and maintain six foot distancing at all times,” he said. “Finally, doctors strongly encourage the use of good hygiene which includes frequent hand washing and not touching your face. It’s up to all of us to #FlattenTheCurve. Remember, the best way to do that is #StayHomeSaveLives.”
COVID-19 cases over time
Coronavirus daily case counts over time by local counties in the Dallas - Fort Worth metroplex. Tap the arrow button to replay the animation. Data provided by Texas Health and Human Services and local counties.
Gatherings still illegal, unsafe amid COVID, Fort Worth leaders warn as summer nears
On playgrounds children run together, at parks and along trails, friends huddle together — we want traditional summer time fun to be upon us.
Whether planned or by happenstance, gatherings are not still permitted under Gov. Greg Abbott’s most recent order to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price says it is illegal to gather in groups, and Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley wants everyone to wear a mask when they’re with others.
A massive party May 10 at a Fort Worth park was one of the latest examples of people’s eagerness to gather, but as Memorial Day approaches, officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say it’s best to stay away from each other.
The gathering of at least 400 in Village Creek Park ended in a shooting that left five people wounded. Witnesses reported hearing 30 gunshots. As of noon Friday police had made no arrests, and, without a formal records request, refused to answer whether citations were written for organizing a mass gathering during the pandemic.
In briefly discussing the shooting, Price said last Monday during a coronavirus briefing that residents should not gather in groups.
“Those mass gatherings are not legal, nor are they safe,” she said.
44 inmates at Tarrant County Jail have COVID. Two describe the quarantine conditions.
When Eric Antonio Johnson wakes up, there are seven other men sleeping near him. When he looks at the pods around him, he can see and talk to at least 20 other men. It’s not possible to social distance and he’s often within just feet of someone else. Some of those people are sicker than he is.
At the Tarrant County Jail, quarantining isn’t easy.
“This is a constant battle and the target is always moving,” said Tarrant County Sheriff’s Lt. Jennifer Gabbert.
Johnson, 34, found out he was positive for COVID-19 about a week after he was sent to the Greenbay Unit, where sick inmates are quarantined.
“They sent us all back here trapped together,” he said.
As of May 18, there were 44 active cases in the jail among 3,563 inmates. All of the positive inmates are in quarantine and are being treated by John Peter Smith Hospital medical staff, Gabbert said on Monday.
In total, 121 inmates have tested positive at some point. Seventy-seven of them have recovered. No deaths have been reported.
Of the staff, 39 have tested positive. Ten have recovered and returned to work.
Ninth inmate dies from coronavirus at FMC Fort Worth prison
Bich Tran became the ninth inmate to die from coronavirus at a federal medical prison in Fort Worth.
Tran, 50, was serving a 360-month sentence at Federal Medical Center Fort Worth. On April 22, he had a fever and tested positive for COVID-19, according to a press release from the Bureau of Prisons.
Health Services staff at the prison took Tran to a local hospital and, on May 2, placed him on a ventilator. On Sunday, he died at John Peter Smith Hospital.
Tran had long-term, pre-existing conditions, the BOP said, but did not specify what those conditions were.
Tran was sentenced in the Eastern District of Texas for conspiracy to manufacture and possession with intent to distribute ecstasy, methamphetamine, cocaine base, and marijuana. He had been in custody at FMC Fort Worth since June 16, 2015, the BOP said.
As of Monday, more than 640 inmates had tested positive for coronavirus at the prison, 341 of whom have recovered. Six staff members had tested positive, according to data from the BOP.
At the White House, Fort Worth chef tells Trump, ‘Our economy is gonna be great again’
Fort Worth chef Tim Love took his message to a White House roundtable Monday, although it was overshadowed by President Donald Trump’s later announcement that he is taking hydroxychloroquine.
Love, owner of Texas and Tennessee restaurants including the local flagship Lonesome Dove Western Bistro, spoke along with Del Frisco’s owner Tilman Fertitta of Houston and other restaurateurs in what was billed as a discussion with industry leaders.
Love asked Trump to give restaurateurs more flexibility in any future federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) for workers and said many restaurants also need money to pay the rent so they can protect workers’ jobs.
“Today I fought for the 11 million people employed by the restaurant business and the President responded very favorably,” Love said afterward in a statement.
“”I’m so proud to be an American and have the opportunity to go from making salads to having an influence on policy. This is the definition of the American dream!”
Farewell to Bird Café, closing Friday: a Cowtown restaurant with an artist’s soul
The good times end Friday at Bird Café, a downtown Fort Worth restaurant full of history and pride but not always full of customers.
Bird opened in 2013 in a landmark. Its 1889 home at 155 E. Fourth St. is one of the few Sundance Square buildings that were already standing when outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid took refuge here and walked the streets.
Dinner will be served through Friday in the lovingly restored interior, lined with classic American art from late Fort Worth artist twins Scott and Stuart Gentling’s “Birds of Texas” series.
As Fort Worth’s American Airlines battles COVID, are bankruptcy or job cuts possible?
When Boeing’s chief executive predicted that one of the United States’ largest airlines would go out of business because of the COVID crisis, many industry observers speculated that the unidentified company he was referring to was American Airlines.
The Fort Worth-based airline is losing $70 million a day, company executives said during a recent earnings call, and has more debt than the nation’s other major carriers. Any misfortunes at American would be bad news for the Dallas-Fort Worth economy, where the airline employs about 33,000 people and is North Texas’ largest employer.
But several people who follow the air travel industry closely say they believe American can survive the pandemic without filing for bankruptcy protection. To do so, they say, American must become a smaller company, with fewer airplanes and a smaller payroll.
Spencer McGowan, founder of Dallas-based McGowan Group Asset Management and host of a weekly NetWorth Radio show on KLIF-AM, said he believes American can get through the crisis without filing for bankruptcy — but the company will need to cut jobs.
“I think the net result is, they will have to downsize by about 5,000 jobs, a majority of them here in North Texas,” McGowan said in a phone interview. “I think that’s going to have to happen, unfortunately.”
But McGowan said his firm’s review of American’s finances for investors shows the company is well-managed and has enough cash to pay its bills until the public appetite for air travel returns, mostly likely toward the end of 2021.
This story was originally published May 19, 2020 at 5:00 AM.