As the coronavirus moves across boundaries, some look to Abbott for uniform restrictions
Despite being neighbors, the counties of Dallas and Tarrant have adopted different restrictions to combat the novel coronavirus’ spread.
It’s a tale of two counties. But the virus knows no county lines.
Whereas gatherings of more than 50 people are banned in Dallas County, groups more than double the size of up to 125 people can still convene in Tarrant County. And in other cities, like Austin, groups are limited even further to just nine people.
Differences in crowd limits are just one of many distinctions that have arisen in local officials’ responses to mitigate the outbreak in their communities. That’s because in the absence of statewide restrictions, Gov. Greg Abbott has largely left such decisions in the hands of local officials.
Meanwhile, governors across the country have shut down schools statewide, closed bars and restaurants, imposed curfews and more.
“There may be additional recommendations that will be coming from the president, but we’ve seen very swift and very effective standards issued by local authorities based upon consultation with local health authorities, which is the way the structure works in the state of Texas,” Abbott told reporters Tuesday following a conference call with hospitals across the state.
Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley, who has been critical of the state’s vitriol toward local authorities in the past, said he has been impressed with the level of flexibility and autonomy Abbott has granted local officials.
“It’s been very refreshing to see how closely he has worked with the counties and with the cities, with school districts,” Whitley said, “because we’re all different.”
After declaring a state of disaster last week, Abbott has taken actions that have had statewide effects, such as eliminating STAAR test requirements for the school year amid school closures, waiving regulations to bolster deliveries to grocery stores, limiting visitation to nursing homes and more.
But some officials on the front lines say more needs to be done to ensure that the virus’ spread is slowed, not just in each county, but by region.
In Dallas County, the number of positive cases has risen to 28 and officials have closed many non-essential businesses.
“We need our governor and our regional partners to come together,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said at a press conference Monday night. “The only way to do that is through the state. We need the state to come in and lay out parameters.”
The Texas Education Agency has said school closures will be districts’ decisions, and Abbott told KFDX-TV in Wichita Falls Monday that he would not currently issue restrictions on restaurants and bars statewide, “not unless there’s perhaps a federal mandate.”
“If we all act the same, then basically what we can just do is tell all small business owners in the state to go ahead and close down, especially restaurants and bars and gyms, because for the next eight weeks you’re not going to have any business. And by the time we come back, you’ll all be out of business,” Whitley said, stressing that he thinks local guidelines need to be reevaluated based on conditions in a particular area.
Rep. Chris Turner, a Democrat from Grand Prairie, said public health has to be the most important consideration, and said he worried that some people may disregard restrictions meant to facilitate social distancing and simply choose to drive to another city where rules are looser on restaurants, bars and businesses.
It was a point Tarrant County’s Public Health Director Vinny Taneja acknowledged on a tele-town hall Monday night when Tarrant County was at five confirmed cases and Dallas County was at 19.
“We’re adding maybe a case every day or two, so it’s still sort of early for us,” Taneja said. “If you think that we’re in Tarrant County and Dallas is something different, well we’re one connected community. It is a Dallas-Fort Worth community. It’s together. What happens there can easily spill over to us.”
Turner sees firsthand how interconnected the DFW region is with a district on the edge of Tarrant County’s border.
“In the greater North Texas area, county lines, seat limit lines don’t really mean a whole lot in this context,” Turner said. “That’s where statewide uniformity, I think, would be valuable and probably be helpful to local leaders as they’re dealing with a million other things right now as well.”
Benjamin Neuman, the head Texas A&M University-Texarkana’s biology department who has worked with coronaviruses for 24 years, said he understands governors across the country are trying to strike the right balance, but “we’ve got one chance to get rid of this virus forever.”
“And if we do it right, this virus isn’t going to come back,” Neuman said. “I’m a virologist, I only care about hammering this thing with the biggest hammer I could find.”
In an effort to prevent a patchwork of local policies from arising Neuman, said he would recommend stricter, uniform measures, such as statewide school closures and limits on gatherings.
“I think it’ll hurt economically and be unpleasant and there are some vulnerable people that are really going to get hit hard,” Neuman said. “But I think there are things that can be done at the state and even local level to mitigate some of that. And that’s where I see government coming in during this outbreak.”
Gerald Parker, serves as the associate dean of Global One Health at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences. In his work as the former deputy secretary for chemical and biological defense at the U.S. Defense Department and a former assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services, he said he’s seen how it can be ineffective if you wait too long and put together piecemeal community mitigation interventions.
But Parker also stressed that Texas is a large state where communities may be disparately affected.
“Houston is a long way from Dallas. Is a long way from Austin. Is a long way from El Paso. And so we’re probably still in this period that we need to be kind of specific with what’s happening in our communities,” Parker said. “But we got to be ready to aggressively clamp down.”
Dallas County’s first instance of community spread, was a “local trigger” for increased mitigation efforts in Tarrant County, Taneja said on Monday night’s call. And Tuesday morning, Tarrant County reported its first instance of possible community spread.
But at a Tarrant County Commissioners Court meeting later that day, the county extended its emergency declaration, but did not implement stricter measures than what the city had previously announced.
This story was originally published March 17, 2020 at 5:59 PM.
