Dennis Bonnen Recording – Easing Restrictions on Texas Businesses
On Monday, Governor Greg Abbott is expected to announce that he’s easing even more restrictions on Texas businesses. Chris Fox reports House Speaker, Dennis Bonnen, says the state has achieved the needed criteria to continue their reopening.
House Speaker, Dennis Bonnen, describes the status of the pandemic in Texas is manageable despite more than 1,200 deaths and over a thousand new cases of COVID-19 every day since May 7th.
“We have low numbers of positive test rates, we have low hospitalization numbers for COVID, and we have low death rates for COVID.”
Speaker Bonnen
Bonnen says as long as Texans continue to follow the state’s health guidelines, the governor will continue to open the economy.
“We have to learn to live with the virus because we don’t know when it’s going to go away. And what the medical experts are telling us is that it’s not going away anytime soon.”
Speaker Bonnen
Abbott, Bonnen defend Texas reopening plan, expect next step to be revealed Monday
Gov. Greg Abbott announced that more plans to reopen Texas will be coming on Monday. This comes exactly two months after he declared a public health disaster in Texas to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
“If Texans follow the health guidelines of washing their hands, social distancing, wearing a face-covering when they go out in public, then we can be successful in reopening our economy, getting Texans back to work.”
Speaker Dennis Bonnen
Officials encourage the public to continue taking safety precautions when out in public and get tested if they are exhibiting symptoms. While people have coined the term ‘a new normal,’ Gov. Abbott says things won’t fully be the same until the vaccine which could take up to 18 months to create.
Gov. Greg Abbott expected to announce more reopening plans for Texas on Monday
“We’re opening Texas as fast as possible while also containing the spread of COVID-19.”
Gov. Abbott
Health experts say that even small steps toward reopening businesses will increase the number of people who become sick from the virus.
The governor has allowed the reopening of a number of businesses across industries over the last two weeks, including restaurants, retailers and hair salons. Originally Abbott said bars would get the go-ahead to reopen by mid-May. He has stopped short of putting a date on their reopening, saying he needs more information from experts to figure out how to reopen them safely.
