Texas Gov. Abbott To Let Stay-At-Home Order Expire; Open Businesses With Limited Capacity This Friday

  |  
Apr 28, 2020

Gov. Greg Abbott delivered a lot of good news for the folks of Texas this week after announcing the state was going to allow the stay-at-home order to expire with a plan of allowing businesses to reopen this Friday with limited capacity.

With the economy on a national level taking so many devastating hits due to the shutdowns across the country, many other states are also looking to implement plans that will reopen the economy and allow people to get back to business as usual.

Here’s more on Abbott’s plan via The Washington Examiner:

“My executive order to stay at home that was issued last month is set to expire on April 30. That executive order has done its job to slow the growth of COVID-19, and I will let it expire as scheduled,” Abbott said during a press conference on Monday. “Now, it’s time to set a new course. A course that responsibly opens up businesses in Texas.”

He continued, “We will do that in a way that uses safe standards. Safe standards for businesses, for their employees as well as for their customers. Standards based upon data and on doctors.”

Businesses like movie theaters, retail stores, and shopping malls will reopen their doors on Friday, however, they must abide by social distancing guidelines and are only allowed to have 25 percent of their capacity. Libraries and museums are also set to resume operations under the same guidelines, however hands-on exhibits will remain closed.

Abbott said that this is the first phase of getting the economy back up and running, noting that a limited reopening like this should help to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and keep cases down.

“There’s a reason that all businesses in Texas cannot open all at once,” the Texas governor said. “We’ve already seen precautionary tales of what can happen when things reopen. There have been reports that China is now having new outbreaks. Singapore is having a second wave that is bigger than its first wave. There’s coronavirus expansion in places like Hong Kong and Japan.”

Abbott also said, “The deal is that it’s a fact that it’s hard to get rid of this virus because it is so contagious. So, we’re not just going to open up and hope for the best. Instead, we will put measures in place that will help businesses open while also containing the virus and keeping Texans safe.”

The governor stated that businesses like gyms, bars, and hair salons can expect to reopen sometime in mid-May.