COVID-19 hospitalizations are low so that Tarrant County bars will reopen
Once it is safe to drive and power is restored, Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley will announce that bars can reopen.
“If the county’s closed because of bad weather, I don’t think it’s very good for me to be opening the bars,” Whitley said.
Over the last week, COVID-19 hospitalizations have been below 15% of capacity in the 19-county North Texas trauma service region. This allows county judges to reopen bars and increase capacity at restaurants, under Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order outlines. North Texas bars had to close and restaurants had to reduce capacity on Dec. 3 when COVID-19 hospitalizations exceeded Abbott’s 15% threshold.
Bars will be able to open at 50% capacity, and other businesses such as amusement parks, movie theaters and zoos can expand to 75%.
Whitley allowed bars to initially open on Oct. 12 when Abbott issued his executive order and said he didn’t see a reason why he would shut bars down if some were opening up as restaurants anyway.
Statewide, 3,200 bars have reclassified as restaurants, a Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission spokesperson said. The number in Tarrant County was unavailable because of the power outages.
Coronavirus data in the county has been trending downward over the last couple of weeks, but it still isn’t at the level officials wants.
New coronavirus cases reported in a week’s time fell under 10,000 for the first time in eight weeks on Jan. 30 and have stayed there, according to the latest data on Feb. 13. Because of the inclement weather, the county has not updated its data.
The county’s positivity rate, which peaked at 30% in early January, has now been cut in half, and the percentage of occupied hospital beds by COVID-19 patients is at 20%.
Whitley attributes the progress to the vaccine arriving, the holidays being over and the weather, which has kept people inside and will continue to do so.
“I’m hopeful that all those things combined will keep these numbers low,” he said.
