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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday announced he would lift the state mask mandate soon, even as federal officials urged states not to give up COVID-19[female[feminine precautions and noted a slowdown in the decline in cases across the country.
Make no mistake, COVID-19 has not gone away, but it is clear from recoveries, vaccinations, reduced hospitalizations and safe practices Texans are using that state warrants are no longer necessary, “Abbott, a Republican, said in a statement. .
Texas will join a dozen other U.S. states that currently do not have a statewide mask requirement, including neighboring Oklahoma, according to a count from the National Academy for State Health Policy . It is currently the most populous state without a statewide mandate.
The governor’s decree, which will come into force on March 10, also lifts capacity restrictions on state enterprises. Local authorities can still impose “mitigation strategies” if hospitalizations in their area increase, but they are prohibited from punishing residents who defy mask guidelines and cannot limit commercial capacity to less than 50%.
COVID-19 cases and deaths had plummeted after a surge that followed the winter vacation season across the country, including in Texas. The governor justified his decision by pointing to the drop in the number of cases in the state, noting that the daily number of cases is the lowest since last November.
But last November, cases of COVID-19 were on the rise in Texas. At the time, Governor Abbott was resisting calls for tougher measures to curb the spread of the virus despite spikes in hospitalizations.
Health data also shows the state continues to register worrying new cases of COVID-19 and hospital admissions, making it one of three “red states” – states with Most concerning positivity test data – in the latest federal guidelines. And as states relaxed restrictions, the Biden administration has repeatedly warned that the decline in COVID-19 cases in the country has slowed amid reports of faster-spreading mutant variants of the virus.
“Please listen to me clearly: at this level of cases, with the spread of variants, we risk completely losing the hard-earned ground that we have won. These variants are a very real threat to our people and our communities. progress, “said Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC. journalists Monday.
“Now is not the time to relax critical safeguards which we know can stop the spread of COVID-19 in our communities,” Walensky added.
Senior White House COVID response adviser Andy Slavitt criticized the decision on Tuesday evening, arguing that “now is not the time to do it.”
“We appreciate the challenges governors face in making all the decisions they face and we recognize that a lot of them are theirs,” Slavitt said on MSNBC. “But the president has made it very clear that we will save a lot of lives if the first 100 days – 50,000 lives, that’s the estimate, if everyone wears a mask. And so we think that’s critical, especially now that we’re starting to see an increase in cases in Texas, which we’ve seen over the last week, and especially since we’re now planning to vaccinate the country. Now is not the time to do it. ”
At a press conference on Tuesday announcing his decision, Gov. Abbott warned that lifting the mask requirement “does not end personal liability.”
“Personal vigilance to follow safety standards is still needed to contain COVID. It’s just that now state mandates are no longer needed,” the governor said.
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