Texas Governor Greg Abbott becomes the first governor to announce dates to “to begin the process of reopening the state of Texas.” Schools, however, will remain closed for the 2019-2020 school year. Here are some of the restrictions being relaxed as part of an executive order.
- April 20th: State parks reopen with strict guidelines to reduce transmission of COVID-19 – including requiring visitors to wear face coverings, maintain a six-foot distance from individuals outside of their party, and prohibiting the gathering of groups larger than five.
- April 22nd: Elective procedures can resume IF performed in accordance with the commonly accepted standard of clinical practice and would not deplete the hospital capacity or the PPE needed to cope with COVID-19.
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Procedure in hospitals can resume IF the facility has certified in writing to Texas HHSC both (1) that it will reserve at least 25% of its hospital capacity for treatment of COVID-19 patients, accounting for the range of clinical severity of COVID-19 patients, and (2) that it will not request any PPE from any public source — whether federal, state, or local — for the duration of the COVID-19 disaster.
- April 24th: A “Retail-To-Go” model will allow retail outlets in Texas to reopen. Under this model, reopened establishments are required to deliver items to customer’s cars, homes, or other locations to minimize contact.
These new plans come a day after Donald Trump released a plan to reopen the country. But Trump’s plan included a recommendation that certain guidelines be followed only after a 14-day downward trend in coronavirus cases. It doesn’t appear Abbott is following that suggestion. According to The Dallas Morning News:
The number of newly reported cases in Texas continue to spike and dip each day, but have yet not shown a continued downward trend. Over 960 new positive tests were reported on Thursday, up from the 800 reported a day earlier, according to state data. Not quite 160,000 Texans have been tested — just more than half of 1% of the state’s population of 28.9 million people. Texas has the lowest rate of coronavirus testing per capita in the country, research shows.
Abbott said he has assembled a panel to “develop a medical architecture to comprehensively test and trace COVID-19 that will enable Texans to gradually and safely begin the process of returning to work and other activities.” But for now, he admitted he is going off a “glimmer of hope” that cases have leveled off.