Tarrant County ends its mask term after Texas Governor Greg Abbott says the statewide order will end next week

Updated at 15:36 with comment from the mayor of Fort Worth, Betsy Price.

Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley said he was removing the mandate from the county mask after Governor Greg Abbott’s announcement on Tuesday that the state order would end next week.

Whitley said he made the decision to terminate the county order immediately to avoid confusion, but that he hoped the governor would wait until after spring break.

“I don’t understand why, if he is announcing today, why is he waiting until next Wednesday to terminate,” said Whitley. “Therefore, we will proceed and terminate starting today.”

The mask order has been in effect across the state since July, with local enforcement authorities and penalties for not following it.

Whitley said that when people hear that things are looking up, they tend to relax what they are doing, and the county saw previous spikes in COVID-19 cases after precautions were lifted, he added.

“We’ll see what happens two or three weeks after spring break,” said Whitley.

Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price said in a tweet that Abbott’s request on Tuesday was “premature” and that Texans should continue to wear masks, wash their hands and practice social detachment.

She also urged the governor to open more categories of Texans qualified to receive COVID-19 vaccines, which are available only to frontline health professionals, residents of long-term care facilities, people over 65 or people over 16 years old with an underlying health problem.

The Fort Worth City Council canceled a planned vote to extend its mask term throughout the city until May 18, Price said.

Whitley added that President Joe Biden has not yet terminated a federal mask mandate, which replaces Abbott’s order and means that they may still be required in federal buildings and transit services, he said.

Abbott also said on Tuesday that companies can open at full capacity starting next Wednesday, but they can limit occupancy or implement additional security protocols at their discretion.

County judges will be able to impose their own restrictions on coronavirus if hospitalizations for COVID-19 increase above 15% in their region for seven consecutive days. But as of Tuesday, no area of ​​Texas met these criteria, according to state data.

The region that includes Dallas and Tarrant counties was at 8.7% on Monday.

The governor said that county judges cannot impose penalties for not wearing a face mask and cannot limit occupancy restrictions to less than 50% of capacity.

Abbott’s move faced resistance from other local officials and public health experts. Although new cases of COVID-19 and hospitalizations dropped from a peak in January, the levels of the disease are still high. This week, about 5,600 people across Texas were hospitalized with the virus. The state recorded an average of about 5,000 new cases per day in the past week.