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.
Reopenings this month
Gyms, nonessential manufacturers and more were permitted to reopen in-person at a limited capacity Monday, and Abbott announced a handful of services that may also open effective immediately.
Previously, licensed child care providers were restricted to accepting only children of workers deemed essential. Starting now, child care services may resume as more Texans are expected to be called back to work. A detailed set of recommendations for facilities include reduced capacity, revised pick-up and drop-off, screening children for symptoms and more.
Beginning now, youth clubs, like Girl Scouts, may also resume meeting with social distancing guidelines in place.
On May 8, some beauty services were allowed to reopen their doors, and now tattoo and piercing studios, massage parlors, waxing services and more can also open along similar guidelines.
Businesses located in office buildings may increase their capacity to 10 employees or 25% of the workforce — whichever is greater.
This Friday, restaurants will be allowed to double their capacity to 50% — a little over two weeks after they were allowed to open their doors on May 1. And bars, wine tasting rooms and craft breweries are permitted to open for the first time with similar restrictions and at 25% capacity. Bars should remove or block bar stools so customers don’t order at the bar itself, ensure customers remain seated six feet apart from other groups and discourage activities that enable close contact, like dancing.
Failure to follow the guidelines may result in the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission issuing a 30-day license suspension for the first infraction and a 60-day suspension for the second.
Additional entertainment venues may also reopen Friday, with bowling alleys, bingo halls and skating rinks permitted to open at 25% capacity. They must ensure customers remain six feet apart, regularly disinfect facilities and rental equipment and block off interactive areas, like arcades.
Similarly, rodeos and other equestrian events, aquariums and natural caverns may reopen at 25% occupancy. Interactive areas must be closed, and frequently touched items, like handrails, should be blocked off. Zoos may reopen at the limited capacity May 29.
Rodeos with indoor venues can have in-person spectators, but should sell tickets remotely and ensure attendees are seated in alternate rows. Large gatherings, like a county fair, that may feature rodeos are not currently permitted. Theme parks are not yet allowed to reopen, although Abbott said he would like to see them open as quickly as possible and added strategies are being developed.
On May 31, both day and overnight summer camps can begin. Camps should consider separating children into cohorts, visitors should be not be permitted between sessions and excursions away from camp are strongly discouraged.
Youth sports teams can also hold practices without spectators on May 31, with games and competitions allowed to resume June 15 with them. Spectators should avoid being in groups of more than ten, remain six feet apart or wear face coverings.
Professional basketball, baseball, auto racing, football, golf, softball and tennis leagues may apply for approval from the state to host events starting May 31 without in-person spectators.
Texas’ COVID-19 cases
Abbott has emphasized that downward trends in the rate of hospitalizations and positive cases are some of the most important metrics he is assessing. Monday, he went over tables that showed the state’s daily COVID-19 hospitalizations over time and the seven-day rolling average of positive cases.
Although daily hospitalizations and cases have fluctuated, the state has seen an overall downward trend in both rates.
However, Democratic lawmakers pointed to the state’s failure to meet other metrics before moving forward with additional reopenings.
“A few weeks ago Governor Abbott promised us he would be guided by doctors and data. Today, it’s clear he is simply cherry-picking the data,” Rep. Chris Turner, a Democrat from Grand Prairie and chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said on a call with reporters after Abbott’s press conference.
Turner pointed to an increase in the number of new cases and deaths over the last two weeks. And Texas recently hit daily highs for both.
On Saturday, the Texas Department of State Health Services reported 1,801 new cases — the highest single-day increase the state has seen. Abbott credited more than 700 cases in the Amarillo area to a “surge response team” that began testing employees in meat packing facilities in the Panhandle.
Two days earlier, on Thursday, the state had hit another grim record, with a single-day high of 58 COVID-19 related deaths.
An increase in confirmed cases is likely to follow an increase in testing as the state ramps up its capabilities and tests in targeted areas, Abbott has said. But the state still has yet to consistently meet its goal of conducting 30,000 tests a day. It has hit that threshold only three times, most recently on Saturday with 32,479 new tests reported.
Last month, the state had also laid out a plan to have 4,000 contact tracers mobilized by May 11 to help box in the virus by reaching out to everyone an infected person has been in contact with since contracting the disease.
The state has yet to reach that goal — a point John Hellerstedt, the commissioner of DSHS, acknowledged Monday.
“I would not say we are able to contact every single positive test at this point,” he said.
Abbott denied reports Monday that DSHS has included coronavirus antibody tests in its statewide testing figures. Antibodies can indicate that a person has recovered from the virus — and inclusion in the state’s figures could mean recoveries could be mixed in with the numbers of active cases reported.
“The answer is no, they are not commingling those numbers,” Abbott said.
But on a call with reporters after Abbott’s announcement, Turner said DSHS told his staff that the state’s total number of tests do include both.
“We continue to update the data we post online and will begin this week breaking out total antibody test results and the number of probable COVID-19 cases, which includes people with positive antibody tests who have had symptoms,” Lara Anton, a DSHS spokeswoman, wrote in an email Monday ahead of Abbott’s press conference.
Infectious disease experts have said that while they’re encouraged Texas is taking an incremental approach at reopening, sufficient time between phases is needed to assess how loosening restrictions affects the virus’ spread. If a resurgence in cases does arise, reinstating stay-at-home orders should be considered, they said previously.
Abbott let his statewide stay-at-home order expire last month, and has said that his current executive orders supersede local ones — hindering local officials’ ability to enforce stricter requirements in most cases.
On Monday, Abbott said if an area sees “a meaningful outbreak” or has concerns about hospital capacity, halting elective medical procedures and bolstering hospital capacity would be some of first steps that would be taken to combat the spread.
But Rep. Gene Wu, a Democrat from Houston, said Abbott’s orders have prevented local officials from doing their jobs, and Texas is still not ready to reopen.
“All the sacrifices that Texans have made was buying time for the state and federal governments to prepare and get us ready to reopen, and we have squandered that time,” Wu said. “We have wasted it.”
This story was originally published May 18, 2020 at 2:43 PM.
