Greg Abbott says he ends Texas’ mask rule, limits business capacity

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Gov. Greg Abbott announced Tuesday that he will end Texas’ termination mandate in Texas next week and will soon be able to open all businesses at full capacity.

“Now is the time to open up Texas 100%,” Abbott said in a Mexican restaurant in Lubbock, arguing that Texas has fought the coronavirus pandemic to the point that people and businesses do not need the state to tell how they should function ‘. longer.

Abbott said he had most of the earlier executive orders he had issued in the past year in order to halt the spread of the virus. He said with the start of next Wednesday, “all businesses of any kind may open 100%” and masks will no longer be needed in public.

The news comes as the spread of the virus continues to spread across the state. Texas has averaged more than 200 deaths a day in the past week.

Yet the move is not entirely surprising. Abbott said Thursday that his office is investigating the ordering of all coronavirus orders across the country and that he will have announcements “soon”. Texas will be the most populous state in the country that does not have a mask mandate. More than thirty states currently have one in place.

The current trajectory of the virus has been difficult to measure over the past few days due to last month’s winter storm, which forced many large provinces to close their testing centers and not report any cases. Daily confirmed cases and deaths are clearly lower than a nationwide peak in January. However, data on hospitalization have been less disrupted and have shown a steady decline since the end of January.

But only 6.5% of Texans were fully vaccinated as of Sunday, though Abbott is optimistic the rate will pick up as more vaccines become available to Texas.

Experts believe Texas is far from herd immunity. If you reach the 70- to 80% level required by many people, according to the census figures, that means about 22 million people, or almost 100% of adults in the state, need to be vaccinated. The vaccines are currently not approved for children under 16, which makes up about 23% of the population.

Scientists do not yet know for sure whether or how well the vaccines can prevent the spread of the virus, although some preliminary research suggests that some vaccines may do so to some extent.

The Centers for Disease Control recommends that people who have received two doses of the vaccine avoid crowds, stay at least 6 feet from people living outside their households, and wear masks to cover their nose and mouth.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading doctor on infectious diseases, has repeatedly said that he does not know when Americans will be able to return to normal, but that they may still have to wear a face mask until 2022.

Chris Essig reported.