A mere five months after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis lifted coronavirus restrictions on his state, Texas Governor Greg Abbott is finally doing the same:
At a press conference in Lubbock, Governor Greg Abbott announced that he was issuing a new executive order that would rescind most of the regulations in his previous orders, including allowing all businesses to open to “100 percent” capacity and ending the statewide mask mandate beginning next Wednesday.
“It is now time to open up Texas 100 percent. Every employee who wants to work should have that opportunity. Every business that wants to be open, should be open,” said Abbott.
Abbott said that his executive order will allow county judges to impose other restrictions if COVID-19 hospitalizations rise above 15 percent in the state trauma service area that covers their county — though not with a penalty of jail time or fines with any mask mandates.
COVID-19 hospitalizations have been on a sharp downward trend, with the most populous regions of the state falling below the 15 percent threshold during the recent statewide freeze.
Currently only two trauma service areas are above that mark: the regions covering El Paso and Laredo.
The governor’s last executive order related to the pandemic was issued in October and permitted some businesses to reopen at 75 and 50 percent capacity, as long as the same hospitalization metric was met.
Here’s Abbott’s full order, which makes it clear that county judges may still impose certain lockdown conditions in certain circumstances, but: A.) No business limits below 50% capacity, B.) No limits on houses of worship, C.) No jail time for violating restrictions and D.) No mask penalties of any kind.
Restrictions are lifted effective March 10.
The big question is not why did Abbott lift what remained of the lockdown, but what took him so long. Here’s the coronavirus chart for Florida, which has been fully open since September 25, 2020:
And here’s the same chart for Texas:
Do anything about those charts suggest that Texas did any better than Florida? Texas had 2.67 million coronavirus cases and 44,353 deaths (for a population of 28,995,881), while Florida had 1.92 million cases and 31,134 deaths on population of 21,477,737. (Coronavirus numbers via Google, population numbers from here.) Take into account Florida’s higher elderly population and it seems that Texas has achieved no notable benefits for an additional five months of lockdown restrictions.
It’s hardly any consolation that states run by Democratic governor’s are still stuck on stupid:
Why is it reckless? What have masks accomplished for CA or for anyone? pic.twitter.com/CqtSVU9b3P
— Hold2 (@Hold2LLC) March 2, 2021
Tags: California, coronavirus, Florida, Gavin Newsom, Greg Abbott, Regulation, Ron DeSantis, Texas, Wuhan
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