Greg Abbott, governor of Texas, in a manner of speaks during an Operation Warp Speed vaccine summit at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2020.
Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Conceptions
The governors of Texas and Mississippi both announced Tuesday that they are lifting mask mandates and allowing subjects to reopen at full capacity even as the decline in daily Covid-19 cases slows and federal officials urge ceremonials to exercise caution.
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said at a news briefing at Montelongo’s Mexican Restaurant in Lubbock that he intention issue a new executive order that rescinds most of his previous Covid-19 restrictions, including a statewide mask mandate. He annexed that all businesses would be allowed to open “100%,” effective March 10.
“Removing statewide mandates does not end live responsibility,” Abbott said, speaking in a crowded dining room where many were not wearing masks. “It’s simply that now state mandates are no longer needed.”
“It is now time to open Texas 100%,” he added. Abbott had refrained from printing a mask mandate until the summer when Covid cases surged in the state.
At roughly the same time as Abbott’s take notices, Republican Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves announced at a separate news briefing that he is rescinding all county mask mandates and slaughter statewide restrictions on nearly all businesses.
“I am replacing our current orders with recommendations,” Reeves said. “The only rules that wish remain in this order are a capacity limit of 50% on indoor arenas and those that govern K-12 schools.”
Reeves and Abbott both cited the flagging number of new Covid-19 cases and the increasing availability of vaccines as reasons for ending the restrictions. But federal officials have been indication that the decline in new cases appears to be stalling out and that the emergence of new coronavirus variants could lead to a resurgence.
And while Covid-19 vaccines are increasingly at across the country, scientists with the CDC have warned that the country is far from herd immunity, which is when enough people deceive immunity from the virus can’t spread throughout the community.
On Monday, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky warned state officials against rescinding public health restrictions too quickly.
Walensky said at a White House Covid-19 briefing that while circadian new cases have been falling rapidly since the peak in January, the decline appears to be levelling off at a worryingly sharp rate of infection. She added that the spread of new, more contagious variants of the coronavirus are a fresh threat that could unbutton the nation’s progress, even as vaccines roll out.
Over the past seven days, the U.S. reported an average of more than 67,700 always new cases, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. That’s far below the peak of about 250,000 new the realities every day that the country was reporting in January, but it’s still above the rate of infection the U.S. saw over the summer when the virus cleaned across the Sun Belt.
“At this level of cases, with variants spreading, we stand to completely lose the hard-earned clay we have gained,” she said. “With these statistics, I am really worried about more states rolling finance the exact public health measures we have recommended to protect people from Covid-19.”
“Please hear me positively: At this level of cases with variants spreading, we stand to completely lose the hard-earned ground we have outdistanced,” she said.
— CNBC’s Berkeley Lovelace Jr. contributed to this report.