Texas county officials grapple with COVID mitigation strategies as governor bans local mandates
[ad_1]
AUSTIN (Nexstar) – Four trauma service areas in Texas have now exceeded the 15 percent threshold that allowed local counties to reduce their business capacity. But Governor Greg Abbott’s latest executive order no longer allows local governments to impose these restrictions.
“I hope residents heed the warnings,” Hays County judge Ruben Becerra urges residents to mask again as hospitals admit more COVID patients this week. But he cannot enforce it.
He is frustrated that the governor has deprived local government officials of prescribing masks and taking back business capabilities.
“If the governor has 254 district judges, I’ll be one of them, there is a huge dynamic variation from hot red zones to not a single COVID in the district. And that’s how I find it, I find it a somewhat blunt instrument to introduce a nationwide limitation of the control of those responsible and to control their local emergency management, ”explained Judge Becerra.
Doctors are concerned about the lack of enforcement, especially as only 53% of the state’s eligible population are fully vaccinated.
“When you combine the combination of relatively low vaccine intake with relaxed containment strategies, it is a formula for a significant increase in pandemic activity,” Dr. Rodney Young, regional chair of Family and Community Medicine at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, said Monday.
The timing is also worrying. Travis County Judge Andy Brown said he wished the state would at least give school districts authority to prescribe masks.
“We’re going to have a whole bunch of unvaccinated children in a tight space going back to school, and they need the opportunity if they need masks or want to take other measures to make sure the virus isn’t” transmitted to schools ” said Brown.
Doctors hope Texans choose ownership.
“Just because you can’t be required to wear a mask or be socially distant doesn’t mean you shouldn’t choose to do these things when engaging in riskier activities,” Dr. Young said.
Governor Abbott reiterated the importance of the vaccine but made it clear that he will not prescribe masks or cut capacity.
His office said Monday that leaders are working on a plan to resolve concerns about hospital staff as hospital admissions continue to rise.
[ad_2]
