AG Ken Paxton warns Austin and Travis County to remove the mask or be prosecuted

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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has threatened to sue Travis County and the city of Austin if authorities do not give up on local orders that continue to demand masks, despite the fact that Governor Greg Abbott ended his state mask term on Wednesday.

Public health leaders in Austin and Travis County recently announced that they would continue to demand masks, although Abbott prohibited local authorities from replacing his order. County judges can order COVID-19 restrictions if hospitalizations for the virus exceed 15% of the bed capacity in the hospital region for seven consecutive days.

Violating the city’s public health order would be a Class C misdemeanor, but the city planned to continue to serve only “the most egregious cases,” Austin Mayor Steve Adler said in a video message posted on Tuesday before of the Paxton ad.

“The decision to require masks or otherwise impose operational limits related to COVID-19 is expressly reserved for private companies in their own facilities. This does not depend on jurisdictions like the city of Austin or Travis County or your local health officials, ”Paxton wrote in a statement on Wednesday. “We have already taken you to court in similar circumstances. You lost. If you continue to break the law in this way, we will sue you again and you will lose again. “

Paxton gave local authorities until 6 pm to comply with the governor’s order, rescind local COVID-19 mandates and withdraw related public statements. The order said it would “replace any conflicting orders issued by local authorities.”

“Otherwise, on behalf of the state of Texas,” wrote Paxton, “I will sue you.”

Neither the city nor the county is retreating.

“I listen to doctors, not politicians as our attorney general,” said Judge Andy Brown in an interview, explaining that this is the message he hopes his residents will receive. “This is no time to take off our masks.”

Brown said the mask’s continued mandate comes from the county’s public health authority – not from its emergency powers due to the pandemic. According to this interpretation, he says the county must be legally able to demand masks. The discussion to remove the mandate from the mask should not start until 80% of the county is vaccinated, Brown said. It is currently at 9%, he said.

“We are going to fight the attack by Governor Abbott and Attorney General Paxton against doctors and data as much as we can,” Adler said in a statement.

Paxton’s office successfully challenged attempts by Austin and Travis employees to restrict restaurant operations during the New Year. But Brown argued that the order remained in effect during the holiday, while the process was being discussed, and that there was improvement shown as a result.

Texas on Wednesday became the most populous state in the country without a masked mandate, with more than half of the country demanding it in public. This is because an average of almost 200 people die every day in the state of COVID-19 and as more contagious new variants of COVID-19 have spread across the state. Several leaders criticized Abbott’s decision to end the mask’s term, including President Joe Biden, who considered this a “big mistake”. Other lawmakers and business owners praised the move.

Efforts to vaccinate the population continue, with experts saying that achieving collective immunity would take almost all adult Texans to be vaccinated. About 8.5% of Texas’ 29 million people were fully vaccinated on Monday, and the state expanded the vaccine’s eligibility to all Texans over 50 on Wednesday. But the number of eligible recipients already exceeded the offer before the expansion, which means that it can be difficult to guarantee a meeting quickly.

Although Abbott says city officials cannot demand the use of masks in public, companies can demand masks within their locations. Dozens of companies in Austin have announced that they will require masks independently, as well as many others across the state. Some already fear the reaction of customers.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo spoke about the end of the mask’s term at a news conference on Wednesday, saying the fight against COVID-19 is underway – with only about 1 in 10 residents. from the county over 16 who are fully vaccinated.

Hidalgo thanked the owners of companies that continue to demand masking in their businesses.

“We know that you were there from the beginning, leading, supporting our people,” she said. “And as unfair as it is, you carrying this burden of keeping the community safe, it’s a huge public service.”