Cameron County bars have been under a closure order, and restaurants knocked back down to 50 percent capacity, over the last month as a result of a surge in COVID-19 cases that triggered more stringent virus control measures as set out by Gov. Greg Abbott based on how many virus patients are in the hospital.
The number of COVID-19 patients in Cameron County is still exceeding 15 percent of hospital capacity over seven consecutive days, thus the bars are still closed and the restaurants still limited to half capacity, per the governor’s directive.
County Judge Eddie Trevino Jr. on Friday announced the extension of the emergency order for another month, which means bars will be closed even on Feb. 7 – Super Bowl Sunday – and “until we hit the threshold that the governor has set allowing them to reopen,” Trevino said, adding that ensuring compliance is on the business owners themselves.
“We have to trust the business owners to police themselves because we just don’t have the resources to go to every restaurant and bar throughout the entire county,” he said.
Trevino said the daily rate of new COVID-19 cases and number of virus patients in county hospitals have decreased slightly, though the number of deaths related to the disease have gone up as more people 65 and older have become infected.
“We had 129 people die in the last two weeks due to COVID,” he said. “That is too high a number.”
Trevino said he doesn’t want to see the county’s meager progress bringing case numbers down erased because a few people insisted on hosting Super Bowl parties.
“If they insist on doing that then please follow the guidelines that we’ve been recommending and setting forth since the beginning: Wear your face mask, practice social distancing and wash your hands,” he said.
Meanwhile, it’s important for restaurants to obey limits on capacity because it’s literally a matter of life and death, Trevino said.
“There are those few that continue to basically flout the rules,” he said. “It is a shame because people’s lives are at risk. … We’re still nowhere near out of the woods yet.”
