Gov. Greg Abbott urges voluntary measures to curb coronavirus spread but says closing Texas will be the ‘last option’

By Patrick Svitek, The Texas Tribune

Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday struck a newly urgent tone about rising coronavirus numbers in Texas but said “closing down Texas again will always be the last option.”

“To state the obvious, COVID-19 is now spreading at an unacceptable rate in Texas and it must be corralled,” Abbott said during a news conference at the Texas Capitol in Austin.

Abbott promised Texas has strategies to address the rising numbers “without having to return to stay-at-home policies.” However, he stopped short of introducing any new policies, instead emphasizing long-established voluntary guidelines encouraging people to stay home if they can, use hand sanitizer, keep six feet of distance with others and, if they cannot, wear a mask.

He also said the state was stepping up enforcement of places like bars where large crowds have gathered, “surging testing in areas that may be hotspots” and working with hospitals to ensure they have capacity for coronavirus patients. He continued to describe capacity as “abundant.”

At the same time, Abbott held open the possibility that Texans could see new restrictions to get the virus under control. He said so while speaking in front of three poster boards showing the rapid rise of daily new cases, hospitalizations and the positivity rate, or the ratio of confirmed cases to tests.

“In each of these three categories, there’s been pretty much a doubling of the numbers in those three categories,” Abbott said. “If we were to experience another doubling of those numbers over the next month, that would mean we are in an urgent situation where tougher actions will be required.”

Abbott spoke a day after Texas saw another record number of hospitalizations—3,409—marking 10 consecutive days of record-high hospitalizations. Saturday saw the highest number of new daily cases yet—4,430.

The positivity rate, presented by the state as a seven-day average, has increased to 8.8%, on par with where it was in late April.

Discussing the guidelines to slow the spread of the virus, Abbott was particularly emphatic about masks.

“I know that some people feel that wearing a mask is inconvenient or is like an infringement of freedom, but I also know that wearing a mask will help us to keep Texas open,” Abbott said.

At the same time, Abbott continued to resist the idea of a statewide mask mandate, saying there needs to be flexibility for different parts of the vast state. He has restricted local governments from mandating individuals wear masks but recently clarified that they can order business to requires customers to wear masks.

This article is republished with permission from The Texas Tribune. Read the original post here.

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