Local mask mandates pop up in Texas despite Gov. Greg Abbott’s ban

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Local masking requirements are resurfacing across Texas – although Governor Greg Abbott has insisted that local officials attempting to enforce restrictions to reduce the spread of COVID-19 will be punished.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner is the youngest to oppose the governor’s order. He announced Monday that the city’s nearly 22,000 city workers will have to mask themselves in city buildings where social distancing is not possible, such as bathrooms, elevators and conference rooms.

“The mayor has the right and responsibility to require city officials to wear face-covers indoors to stop the virus from spreading,” said Mary Benton, a Turner spokeswoman for the Houston Chronicle. “With the increase in Delta variant cases and the high number of unvaccinated people, Mayor Turner is doing whatever it takes to address them [city] Healthy employees. “

The seven-day average of new daily cases in Harris County is 1,761 on Tuesday, compared with 59 cases in the first week of July.

Cases and hospital admissions for COVID-19 have skyrocketed across the country. There were more than 7,300 hospital admissions for people with the virus that week – roughly the number of people hospitalized a year ago when Abbott first introduced a nationwide mask mandate.

Abbott’s July executive order states that “no government agency, including any county, city, school district, and public health agency” and “any public or private entity that receives or will receive public funding” can enforce mask or vaccination regulations. Violations can result in fines of up to $ 1,000. However, private companies still have the right to require customers and employees to wear masks.

President Joe Biden called Abbott’s ban on masks and vaccine mandates in a statement Tuesday “the most extreme” of its kind in the country, noting that six other states have imposed similar restrictions.

Abbott’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. As conditions worsened in Texas hospitals last month, Abbott insisted that he was not changing his arrangement, saying “the way forward is based on personal responsibility, not government mandates.”

A handful of courthouses have also introduced masked mandates, arguing that Abbott’s executive order does not affect the judiciary.

A Dallas Administrative Court judge ordered that everyone in Dallas County’s courthouses – the George Allen Courthouse, the Frank Crowley Courthouse, and the Henry Wade Building – be masked. That came when Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins announced Tuesday that the county had raised its coronavirus threat level to red, the highest threat level on its rating system.

“People have to go to court,” said Jenkins. “You may have a jury subpoena, you may have been called as a witness, you may have to be there as part of your work – and it is important that we protect these people.”

“We always have to remember that the enemy in COVID is not the other, but the virus. And when people have to go to court, it’s my job to protect them. “

– Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins

In addition, Jenkins required attendees to wear masks at a session of the Commissioner’s Court Tuesday, and Commissioner JJ Koch, a Republican, refused and was escorted from the room.

“We must always remember that the enemy in COVID is not the other, but the virus,” said Jenkins. “And when people have to go to court, it’s my job to protect them.”

A Williamson County judge also requires visitors and staff entering the Williamson County Justice Center to wear masks as the county recently reached its red COVID-19 risk level.

Last week Austin Mayor Steve Adler urged city manager Spencer Cronk to enforce vaccination requirements for city workers. Adler said if he could he would impose a citywide mask mandate.

“But the legal question of whether or not a local health authority or local officials are able to make valid and enforceable rules for their local communities seems to be an open question under Texas law,” Adler told KXAN-TV.

Austin is in level 4 of its risk-based guidelines and encourages everyone – including those who have been vaccinated – to wear masks indoors.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued officials from Travis County and Austin in March for imposing a local mask mandate despite Abbott’s order banning such requests at the time. A district judge denied Paxton’s motion to immediately block local mandates, and the lawsuit failed after both parties agreed to dismiss the case after the local order expired and Abbott issued a new executive order.

“Nobody wants it to come to a lawsuit,” said Adler. “I just hope the governor here looks at the same data from the same doctors we hear about and knows how important it is for people to get vaccinated.”

The seven-day average of hospital stays in Texas was 1,705 in early July. That number has since risen to 5,926.

Over the same period, the seven-day average for new daily cases increased nine-fold, increasing from 813 cases to 7,558.

Disclosure: Steve Adler, a former chairman of the board of directors of the Texas Tribune, was a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization funded in part by donations from members, foundations, and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the journalism of the Tribune. You can find a full list of them here.

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