Gov. Abbott: Bars must close at noon today, restaurants to reduce to 50%, outdoor gatherings limited
Source: KHOU-11
HOUSTON Just one day after temporarily pausing the state's reopening plans, Texas is now increasing restrictions on some businesses in an effort to fight the spread of the coronavirus.
Friday's new order from Texas Governor Greg Abbott includes closing bars effective at noon today (except for to-go service) and reducing capacity at restaurants starting on Monday. Also, outdoor gatherings of 100 or more people must be approved by local governments, with certain exceptions
(snip) Friday's executive order includes the following:
All bars and similar establishments that receive more than 51% of their gross receipts from the sale of alcoholic beverages are required to close at 12:00 PM today. These businesses may remain open for delivery and take-out, including for alcoholic beverages, as authorized by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.
Restaurants may remain open for dine-in service, but at a capacity not to exceed 50% of total listed indoor occupancy, beginning Monday, June 29, 2020.
Rafting and tubing businesses must close.
Outdoor gatherings of 100 or more people must be approved by local governments, with certain exceptions.
Read more: https://www.khou.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/gov-abbott-all-bars-must-close-texas-announcement-friday-june-26/285-9775cea0-8034-4518-9a40-1c5700952409
U-Turn. Thank heavens.
lark
(23,003 posts)Fuck us, we are so screwed here in FL. I am pissed as hell.
Arizona is the biggest hotspot and theyre not doing anything yet. Well, they allowed cities to mandate masks, but the state hasnt done much.
lark
(23,003 posts)It was just announced by him 45 min. ago that all FL bars have to stop serving alcohol. Tiny, little, ineffective baby steps is what he's doing. Glad the alcohol serving is going away because people lose their minds. Still no mask guidance and bars/restaurants/parks are not observing social distancing at all. The threat is they will visit bars and report them to get their liquor license pulled. So, nothing immediate at all will happen and I think it's just a totally empty threat to make them look like they care, but they don't and that won't be enforced is my guess.
Jirel
(1,993 posts)I at least have some hope for Abbott and am not surprised he is being less flagrantly terrible. He is in a high risk category, so I think he wants to do more than other rethug governors, but hes too much of a stinking political coward to fully act on it. Hes not dumb, and hes not a true believer, but hes another disgusting rethug politician who is going to support his party at almost all costs.
George II
(67,782 posts)Laelth
(32,017 posts)-Laelth
bucolic_frolic
(42,675 posts)Hassin Bin Sober
(26,272 posts)dalton99a
(81,068 posts)Plenty of material for kick ass ads.
Buckeye_Democrat
(14,847 posts)Stupid ass, but better late than never.
Closing the bars will be a big help.
Baclava
(12,047 posts)yaesu
(8,020 posts)duforsure
(11,882 posts)And bear the responsibility for what its doing to us all now, and causing more delays in a returning to a safe opening. They both are total failures for doing this to us, and are prolonging hurting our economy from these policies .
KPN
(15,587 posts)from sale of alcoholic beverages? That aint going to do it. Within 2 weeks well see another round of closures all eating establishments that serve alcohol.
roamer65
(36,739 posts)The horse has left the barn in TX.
BumRushDaShow
(127,308 posts)The blue cities might be able to try to enforce it but all those small towns (that is a huge state) are not even going to pay that any mind.
That's why the states that got hit early on spent so much time trying to condition people with repeated messaging about mitigation strategies while in lockdown, which the RW loons called "mask shaming" and other bullshit, and the bulk thankfully have complied regardless of the RW noise machine.
But there were always the same little groups flaunting it and the "hot spots" have now popped up in places like Delaware and Maryland (thanks to the beach re-openings and clueless people ignoring the guidance).
rdking647
(5,113 posts)TABC (the alcohol commission) was suspending licenses over the weekend of bars exceeding capacity limits. if a bar opens in violation of the order they can be fined a shit ton of money,have the business seized and the owners/managers go to jail
BumRushDaShow
(127,308 posts)(and our whole alcohol industry is state-controlled). However I can imagine (and I have been to TX twice - the last time in Galveston, rolling down I-45 from Houston to Galveston ) and I wouldn't be surprised if you have small establishments where "no one tells" and they continue on.
I.e., they can only "enforce" what they are aware of.
As a sidenote, I just saw a breaking from WaPo where Florida reported almost 9000 (~8900) new positives today and have also closed their bars immediately.
LeftInTX
(24,554 posts)Not many left, but it does have many parts with a "dry" history.
I'm from Wisconsin where there was a bar on every corner. Around here, most bars in within dining establishments, so you tend to go to the bar while waiting to eat. I live in San Antonio and I remember the only place we could get a beer near my parents' house was Pizza Hut. (This was in 1983) My boyfriend and I would go to Pizza Hut to get a beer..LOL It was so weird...we couldn't find anywhere else nearby.
We have bars without restaurants, but they aren't very common place. It just isn't the culture here.
BumRushDaShow
(127,308 posts)(founded by Methodists and enforced over the past century) yet they were recently dubbed "the drunkest city (binge drinking) in the state of NJ".
We do have a bunch of BYOB restaurants since a state liquor license is exorbitant and they have generally kept the total number of licenses at a restrictive level.
When I was in Galveston (at a work-related conference about 25 years ago) we discovered its reputation as a spring break town full of lots of bars and restaurants along the ocean front, and managed to rack it up at several places in the evenings (while trying to avoid the fire ants ).
LeftInTX
(24,554 posts)BumRushDaShow
(127,308 posts)(luckily we could walk/stumble back to the hotel after that since it was close by)
rdking647
(5,113 posts)moved here from madison 11 years ago
Igel
(35,196 posts)it's concentrated in blue cities.
It's where the first upticks were found, and it's where most of the positive test results are.
Jirel
(1,993 posts)I live in Texas, near San Antonio. The San Antonio powers that be have been really good about putting down more stringent requirements. San Antonio is going up, but not like Houston or Dallas.
However, I live in an area that counts as rural. The bedroom community between us and San Antonio is full of Trump rednecks screaming to reopen everything, and their mayor who was trying to be responsible at first has all but given up. Weve taken to referring to the town as Plague Rat City, and avoiding it. I feel way safer in San Antonio than there, despite far higher case counts per capita. They NEED this order from the state.
The larger rural towns are also asking for trouble these days, one of which is going to hold a pro-forma city council meeting on mandating masks, just so they can vote against it and high-five. At least some good people there are taking it seriously, and Ive had great conversations with some managers who are worried and doing their best. Having Abbott take some first steps may help stem the tide there.
hamsterjill
(15,214 posts)Sabinal just had its first death.
The daughter-in-law of the man who died is still posting on Facebook that the virus is a hoax. THAT is the mentality of some of the craziness we are dealing with.
Im glad Abbott is back tracking a little. But hes only doing it because of the very negative, national press hes been receiving.
Stay safe!!!
Lonestarblue
(9,880 posts)Mayor Adler was proactive early on, cancelling big events like SXSW and closing city parks and facilities. The mayor would not have allowed businesses to reopen early, but Abbott overruled him and other city mayors who were trying to do the right thing. Now we see the results.
HEB (for non-Texans, one of our major grocery chains) has started mandating masks again, but when I went for groceries this morning, a woman wearing a mask had two children with no masks. I know that studies have shown that children are not as easily infected, but they can still give the virus to others if theyre infectedand theyre less likely to cover their mouths if they sneeze. When I see this I just turn and go down another aisle, but this sure is getting old.
By the way, Paul Krugman has a good piece in the NYT today about how it is Republicans who are extending the virus.
yellowdogintexas
(22,119 posts)welcome in June.
The Party ended up holding a virtual convention, and it turned out quite well. Bonus: lots of folks who were not going to go due to costs, time, etc in addition to COVID were able to participate.
soothsayer
(38,601 posts)Thems fightin words!
hamsterjill
(15,214 posts)of all of the negative and national press that he got over the last couple of days.
Just like Trump, it is all about re-election and nothing to do with saving ordinary citizens lives.
This man is a monster.
Susan Calvin
(1,644 posts)That's better than Trump right there.
hamsterjill
(15,214 posts)More than likely, however, Abbott wants to save face for the next election.
He has dropped local leadership in the grease at every opportunity taking a page from the Trump playbook and putting the blame on the mayors and judges.
Susan Calvin
(1,644 posts)ancianita
(35,812 posts)Good luck with the horses, boss Abbott.
Tracer
(2,769 posts)Grab your Bud or a fifth of Jack Daniels and stroll down the street?
denem
(11,045 posts)herding cats
(19,549 posts)It's new since COVID but margaritas to go is the one good thing to come out of all this mess.
It has to be in sealed containers and you take it home and mix it yourself.
scarytomcat
(1,706 posts)quick stores sell beer by the can or bottle but it has to be drunk from the bag even as you drive the freeways and streets.
IronLionZion
(45,258 posts)Plenty of places have takeout drinks. DC has takeout bottled cocktails but you have to buy food too, not just alcohol. Then you take it home to drink it. It's quite awesome.
Outdoor public drinking laws also vary. Some places you can have outdoor seating in front of the bar, which can be loosely defined and extended for social distancing. There have always been alcohol vendors selling stuff on beaches, outside sports venues, and so on.
Steelrolled
(2,022 posts)place to buy packaged beer, as it wasn't sold in grocery stores, corner markets, etc. Your other choice was to go to a "distributor".
Miguelito Loveless
(4,438 posts)Welcome to the real world, governor.
Hugin
(32,778 posts)Last edited Fri Jun 26, 2020, 01:49 PM - Edit history (1)
concept.
Which, is not only horrendously racist, but, presupposes some underlying immunity within the 'herd' existing. An immunity which does not exist for a novel virus such as has caused the present pandemic.
Also, this is a perfect example of not making decisions based on a calendar rather than on events. In a pandemic the virus sets the calendar and moving phases to re-opening can only be based on specific mitigating events emerging in the timeline. Such as, a reliable treatment or vaccine. A fall in the number of new infections is insufficient to govern re-opening unless the number of new infections has fallen to ZERO for the incubation/infection contagious lifespan of the disease in question. In the case of COVID this period would seem to be approximately one month of ZERO new cases.
Oh, and the ZERO can not be achieved by ceasing all testing as has been opined (not a joke) by the gibbering buffoon currently squatting in the White House.
stillcool
(32,626 posts)let the virus spread, kill whoever it wants, and eventually it'll be done. Change nothing. No shutting down, no masks, no nothing. No health care is good too. Accelerate the speed and maybe it'll be over sooner. Total disregard for human life, except their own. It's the only thing that makes sense...except for the 'base'. Their kind of 'logic' is too bent to get straight.
Hugin
(32,778 posts)Look at what happened when the virus first took hold in the US. We went from dozens of cases to thousands in a matter of days. The R0 for the COVID-19 pathogen is explosive. I really do wish it were different. Not the case, unfortunately.
I'm no expert on any of this, but, it's obvious to me. Being so clear, I have to imagine the real experts are running around with klaxons and flashing red lights screaming. Why we don't get more through the media escapes me. It has to be the whole 'don't panic the polis' edict. It's not serving us well at this point.
rdking647
(5,113 posts)as well as #abbottbetrayedtexas and #abbottdeaths
pstokely
(10,510 posts)could the high rates of smoking and obesity of these places be contributing to the hospital admissions a younger population?
Hugin
(32,778 posts)The only real ordinances were at the local/municipal level and Abbott and the Lt Gov have done nothing, but, try to overturn them since they started.
KY_EnviroGuy
(14,483 posts)(quote from the article)
I suppose that's what they use to discourage drunk driving and refinery explosions.......
KY_EnviroGuy
(14,483 posts)(from article)
Who knew?.......
And more..........
Arthur_Frain
(1,783 posts)Furthermore, let me add.....
.....MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Guess Ive decided Im tired of being an adult about things when all I have to deal with is kindergartners in return.
Step right up there younglings, Im a gonna teach you some new words.
Steelrolled
(2,022 posts)It was reported on CBS news, and just as the reporter said the officials were limiting the number of people, and requiring masks, a few people walked behind her with masks off.
They really couldn't postpone this, given what is happening in Calif?
Hugin
(32,778 posts)People simply aren't taking it as seriously as they should. Look at who should be setting the example and it's no question why they are blowing off any restrictions.
Steelrolled
(2,022 posts)that Calif is opening things up, and both are in heap of trouble.
louis-t
(23,199 posts)Oh, and never forget, the Lt. Gov. of TX said senior citizens should be willing to "sacrifice themselves for the economy."
AllyCat
(16,035 posts)But it maybe will get the attention of people to start making changes despite Abbotts inaction.
Paladin
(28,202 posts)That goes double for that shithead Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.
Traildogbob
(8,576 posts)To remember blue states being slammed, and red state politicians fine with it, Gods revenge, our red states have very little virus. And especially one red state asshole, very concerned about Bailing out Blue States being nearly bankrupt from the virus. Something about Blue State Bailout. Who was that asshole you ask? Let em file for bankruptcy was the cry. They mismanaged their budget. May be a good time for Blue states to withhold funding, (taxes) as Dear leader loves to do to cause pain to the DemacRAT party. NOW, all these red state catastrophes, gonna need some cash. Looks like they mismanaged the Virus Response to me. What do you say McConnell, let em go bankrupt, AND die, from your playbook?
Yeehah
(4,524 posts)idiot trump bumpkin governors have increased the length and impact of the pandemic.
"We told you so."
Hugin
(32,778 posts)with a record high of nearly 6,000 on Thursday. The day's tally of over 4,700 hospitalizations was also a record."
from: Johns Hopkins https://coronavirus.jhu.edu
whistler162
(11,155 posts)ant = New York
Grasshopper - Texas and other states that have ignored Covid-19