Local leaders who openly rebelled against Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s ban on mask mandates won a pair of victories in the courts on Tuesday that paved the way for them to demand at least temporarily the face coverings they need to protect the face. Delta variant that causes sky-high cases in the state.
The first setback came in Bexar County, which includes San Antonio. Masks may be made mandatory there in public schools and other public buildings for the time being after a Texas judge ruled in favor of San Antonio and Bexar County officials who denounced Governor Greg Abbott’s ban on masks.
According to Andy Segovia, city attorney for the city of San Antonio, masks will also be made mandatory for county and city employees. Bexar County director, Judge Nelson W. Wolf, said the ruling was important because many students are too young to get vaccinated and “go back to school without protection.”
The second blow was dealt by a Dallas County district judge who ruled that Governor Abbott’s order improperly prevented local officials from protecting residents during an emergency. “Dallas County citizens will be irreparably harmed” if local leaders cannot demand “face coverings and mask mandates to stop the transmission of Covid-19,” judge Tonya Parker wrote in the ruling, referring to the county chief’s chief executive officer. executive, Clay Jenkins. In light of the ruling, Judge Jenkins said he plans to issue an emergency order for the county tomorrow.
On Monday, Texas registered the second-highest daily average of new coronavirus cases in the country, with 12,414, according to a NewsMadura database. That figure is about twice as high as at the end of July.
Now Texas hospitals are approaching capacity and some are bracing for an influx of even more patients. In Houston, Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital is at 100 percent capacity in its intensive care units, with 63 percent Covid cases, NewsMadura reported. The hospital set up tents to accommodate a potential influx of patients.
Fluctuations in other parts of the country have sparked a renewed effort to contain the spread of the virus, with legal and political squabbles over new restrictions.
Local leaders in Florida, hit by the worst wave of the pandemic, are also defying the governor’s ban on mask mandates there. Gov. Ron DeSantis threatens to withhold the salaries of local inspectors and school board members who run them.
In Arkansas, where the number of cases is on the rise, Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson said this weekend he regretted having blocked a mask mandate in his state in April.
On Monday, Arkansas officials said the state had only eight intensive care beds available. On Tuesday, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said that in the 19 counties that make up the North Texas region, there are: only two IC beds for children.
Governor Abbott signed a ban on a mask mandate in May. But unlike his counterpart in Arkansas, he’s sticking to his ban even as local officials defy it.
On Monday, Austin public schools superintendent Stephanie S. Elizalde announced that face masks would be mandatory for the upcoming school year, which begins Aug. 17.
Also on Monday, the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Independent School District Board of Trustees voted unanimously in favor of a resolution seeking a mask mandate in their district.
But Governor Abbott’s office is doubling down, saying in a statement Monday that the governor “has been clear that we must rely on personal accountability, not government mandates.”
On Tuesday, a temporary mask mandate for students, staff and visitors at Dallas public schools went into effect.
Brendan Steinhauser, a Republican political adviser who lives in the Lakeway area, a Republican suburb of Austin, said the rising number of cases has led to more people wearing masks. “It’s obvious, it’s palpable,” he said of the new attitude of wearing masks among his neighbors. “I noticed and it was like, ‘Whoa,'” he added.
