Texas will postpone its reopening amid increases in Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations, Governor Greg Abbott announced on Thursday.
A statement from Abbott’s office shows that only businesses that were allowed to operate under the previous phases can remain open at the designated occupancy prepared by the Texas Department of State Health Services.
“The last thing we want to do as a state is go backwards and close down businesses. This temporary pause will help our state corral the spread until we can safely enter the next phase of opening our state for business,” Abbott said in the release.
Several businesses in Texas were allowed for reopening in May. These included retailers, restaurants, gyms, professional sports, bars and other venues. However, the businesses that would not be allowed to operate were not immediately certain.
Abbott ordered the postponement of elective procedures in licensed hospitals in the hard-hit Bexar, Dallas, Harris and Travis counties to ensure that hospitals can accommodate Covid-19 patients.
Those counties include the state’s largest cities: San Antonio, Houston, Dallas and Austin. There are 4,389 Covid-19 patients in Texas hospitals, an increase from 2,793 a week ago, according to the state’s health department.
“These four counties have experienced significant increases in people being hospitalized due to Covid-19 and today’s action is a precautionary step to help ensure that the hospitals in these counties continue to have ample supply of available beds to treat COVID-19 patients,” Abbott said in his executive order.
Texas is one of the states in the American West and South witnessing a resurgence of coronavirus cases. With this, Abbott asked residents stay home unless they have to truly go outside. He also told them to observe social distancing guidelines and to wear a mask when in public.
“Unless you do need to go out, the safest place for you is at your home,” he said during an interview with KBTX-TV.
“If we were to experience another doubling of those numbers over the next month, that would mean we’re in an urgent situation where tougher actions will be required to make sure that we do contain the spread of Covid-19,” Abbott said at a press conference on Monday.
No peak yet
Despite the rising number of coronavirus cases, the World Health Organization says coronavirus in the US had not peaked yet. it is only experiencing sustained community transmission.
“And as such, the journey for them is, unfortunately, the pandemic for many countries in the Americas has not peaked,” said Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s emergencies program, during a press conference at the agency’s Geneva headquarters.
The number of confirmed Covid-19 cases globally rose by 133,326 on Tuesday, according to WHO. Moreover, more than a third of those cases originated in Chile, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, and the US. Based on WHO’s data, the US had a combined total of 58,583 new cases in a single day.
The US is still worst-hit country in the world with more than 2.3 million coronavirus cases and 121,279 deaths as of Wednesday, based on the data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
