Texas Lifts Mask Mandate Amid Falling Virus Hospitalizations

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Joe Carroll and Paul Stinson
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(Bloomberg) -- Texas Governor Greg Abbott lifted the mask mandate and other anti-pandemic restrictions amid declining hospitalizations and infection rates in the second-largest U.S. state.

Effective March 10, all businesses will be allowed to open at 100% of capacity, Abbott said during a media briefing in Lubbock on Tuesday. His executive order allows county judges to reinstate anti-virus rules should hospitalizations surge.

“Too many Texans have been sidelined from employment opportunities; too many small-business owners have struggled to pay their bills,” the Republican governor said. “It is now time to open Texas 100%.”

Abbott’s anti-pandemic measures have drawn the ire of his conservative electoral base, which saw them as government overreach, and may have wounded any presidential aspirations. He received 0% of the vote in a presidential straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference this past weekend.

The move was immediately blasted by prominent Democrats as irresponsible and politically motivated.

Economic Pain

“This will kill Texans,” Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa said in a statement. “Our country’s infectious disease specialists have warned that we should not put our guard down even as we make progress towards vaccinations.”

New Covid-19 cases in Texas dropped to a five-month low of 1,637 on Monday, state health department figures showed. Virus hospitalizations slipped to the smallest tally since Oct. 28.

Earlier Tuesday, Abbott said in a tweet that Texas is administering more than 1 million Covid-19 vaccinations weekly.

“Texans have mastered the daily habits to avoid getting Covid,” Abbott said.

As of Sunday, none of the state’s 22 trauma-service areas had more than 15% of hospital capacity occupied by virus patients. The pandemic has claimed almost 43,000 Texans since it emerged in early 2020.

“An irresponsible decision guided by political expedience and nothing else,” Houston City Controller Chris B. Brown said in a tweet. “Not only will this set us back in the battle against #COVID19 in the region, it will likely prolong the economic pain brought on by the pandemic.”

(Adds reaction from state Democratic Party leader in sixth paragraph.)

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