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With less than 7% of Texans fully vaccinated and another potentially imminent Covid-19 surge, Texas is opening businesses at full capacity while at the same time ending its highly politicized mask mandate, state Governor Greg announced Tuesday. Abbott.
“Now is the time to open Texas 100%,” declared an unmasked Abbott to cheers at a crowded restaurant in the city of Lubbock.
When Abbott’s policy changes go into effect next week, Texas will be the most populous state in the country that does not require residents to wear masks. Restaurants and other businesses may choose to maintain their own mask policies, but without government backing to do so.
“Maybe at the end of the summer we had the opportunity to control this pandemic. This governor is just going to throw all that away and return us to the Stone Age, ”said Gilberto Hinojosa, chairman of the Texas Democratic Party. “This is crazy.”
Other states and cities have also begun to reverse precautions. In Mississippi, another Republican stronghold, Governor Tate Reeves also announced on Tuesday that the state was lifting the rules for businesses and eliminating county mask mandates.
In other states and cities, including Michigan, Louisiana and the city of San Francisco, California, officials are also lifting some restrictions, although not with the widespread focus of Mississippi or Texas.
Abbott’s announcement, which comes after some 43,000 Texans died from the virus, and while many Texans are still not eligible for the vaccine, sparked an immediate and vehement reaction, from Democratic mayors to enraged worker advocates. because colored jeans will be the hardest again. paste.
“I think this is a slap in the face to workers, especially frontline workers, who have been risking their lives,” said Emily Timm, co-executive director of the Workers’ Defense Action Fund.
Local leaders in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin, the largest cities in Texas, asked Abbott to “not create any ambiguity or uncertainty about the importance of wearing a mask by changing the rules at this time,” said the mayor of Austin, Steve Adler. in a sentence.
“We as a state must be guided by science and data, which says we must uphold the mandate of the mask. There is too much at stake to compromise the positive results that we have seen with too much confidence, “said Adler.
The policy changes also follow a devastating winter storm that hit Texas just a few weeks ago, in a crisis that was exacerbated by the state’s failed emergency management.
Some critics say Abbott is using this moment to distract himself from that catastrophic failure, while also playing politics with lives to win favor with a far-right Republican base that turned against him after he implemented coronavirus restrictions. last summer.
“He has made a decision based on politics,” Hinojosa said.
As most of the significant coronavirus-related restrictions disappear from Texas, the state is simultaneously looking at what could easily be a series of super-spreading events during spring break.
The South Texas seaside towns of Corpus Christi and the already-battered Rio Grande Valley have long been popular destinations with college students heading to parties across the country, and as tourists flock to bars and restaurants, none of them will have to wear masks or masks. social distance.
“Do you think we had a horrible spike on Memorial Day, July 4, and over the holidays?” Hinojosa said. “The increase this state will experience in coronavirus cases will be extremely high and will cause many, many more deaths than any responsible governor should have allowed.”
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