Trump Touts Texas as Model for Reopening Even as Cases Climb
Trump to Promote Texas as Model for Reopening in Abbott Meeting
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump hosted Texas Governor Greg Abbott at the White House on Thursday, promoting the Lone Star State for following his call to reopen the economy even as the U.S. continues to fight the coronavirus outbreak.
The president praised Abbott, a Republican and outspoken Trump supporter, and said the state soon would be “booming at the highest level.”
“Texas has been phenomenal, and Texas is opening up and a lot of places are opening up,” Trump said, sitting beside Abbott in the Oval Office. “I’m not sure that we have a choice. I think we have to do it. You know, this country can’t stay closed and locked down for years.”
The president has unreservedly called for states to reopen for business immediately, even if it means more Americans are sickened and die. He said it is a cost he is willing to pay to get the economy back on track.
Many states are moving forward without meeting federal criteria to begin reopening, according to an analysis by Bloomberg News. Texas has met some of the criteria, but cases of Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, are still increasing in the state.
When asked Thursday about states re-opening without meeting the federal guidelines, Trump said, “We give leeway to the governors.”
Abbott ordered a phased reopening of the state’s economy last week that would allow restaurants, retail stores, malls and theaters to resume business at 25% capacity as of May 1. He said his policy would override local shut-down orders that had been in place since March.
His move has drawn backlash from some local leaders and businesses, including movie theater chains that have said they won’t reopen, amid questions about whether Texas risks a resurgence of the outbreak.
Abbott defended his decision, saying that “we’ve been able to contain the spread of the coronavirus in Texas.” He said outbreaks have been confined to meatpacking plants, senior centers and jails, but added the state had the capacity to test and isolate patients to prevent the virus from spreading beyond the source.
“We have task forces that focus on those three areas. If it weren’t for those three categories, people in Texas testing positive would be very minimal,” Abbott said.
Texas has reported about 35,000 cases of Covid-19 and 955 deaths from the disease. While the increase varies, both numbers are rising from day to day.
Abbott said the data he’s reviewing clearly show a downward trend for the state and support reopening. The Texas plan was personally reviewed by Deborah Birx, the White House task force coordinator, who deemed it “great,” according to the governor.
Birx told reporters on Thursday she did have a “long discussion” with Texas leaders about their reopening plan and persuaded Abbott to move nail salons into the second phase.
She said the federal government remains “concerned” about people without symptoms spreading the virus, but added that Texas is making progress on “testing in a focused way to protect others.” She demurred when asked if Texas is a role model for other states.
“Every state is different, so I don’t want to get into a comparison with the governors. Because I talk to some incredible governors and they’re all doing quite a good job,” Birx said.
Texas was one of several states that saw protesters demand a reopening starting in mid-April, even before cases began to crest. One Dallas salon owner was jailed for reopening in violation of a court order, though Abbott said violators would no longer be incarcerated after an outcry from conservatives.
Abbott issued an order Thursday allowing salons to reopen retroactive to April 2, in order to supersede the Dallas order that led to the jailing of the business owner. Texas gyms can reopen on May 18, with patrons required to wear gloves, but not masks. The governor has said he’s considering when to reopen bars.
But some major businesses and cities in Texas haven’t taken advantage of the governor’s move to lift restrictions and remain closed.
Large movie theater chains like AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc., as well as Texas-based Cinemark Holdings Inc. and Alamo Drafthouse Cinema LLC, didn’t open on May 1 as permitted both because of safety concerns as well as a lack of new releases.
Attendance was sparse in most restaurants that reopened, though fast-food drive-through lines remain popular. Abbott has said Texans are not required to wear masks in public places, though he encourages them to do so when social distancing isn’t possible.
Abbott’s order allows public libraries to reopen at limited capacity, but the state capital of Austin, a liberal enclave, won’t open them right away. City offices also remain shut.
“We are not going to reopen anything more than what we have already open because we think that’s the safest thing to do,” Austin Mayor Steve Adler, a Democrat, said, according to KXAN-TV.
Texas passes some of the White House coronavirus task force’s reopening criteria, for which there is available data. But a lack of complete information makes it difficult to determine whether it has cleared all of the federal metrics.
Importantly, the state does not appear to have met the criteria of reporting two weeks of declining cases of Covid-19.
Other criteria include capacity for the state’s hospitals to treat all Covid-19 patients without crisis care and a “robust testing program” in place for at-risk health care workers, including antibody testing to identify people who were infected without experiencing symptoms. It’s unclear if those conditions exist in Texas.
The state has ramped up testing over the past couple of weeks, but daily numbers still swing wildly, from about 29,000 tests on Saturday to less than 10,000 reported Sunday.
Confirmed virus cases have marched upward with the increased testing, regularly topping 1,000 per day in the past week. Hospitalizations, too, are hovering near a high point this week above 1,800, according to Texas Health and Human Services.
Abbott has frequently been at odds with county health officials in his state’s largest metropolitan areas, including Houston, Dallas and Austin, who have advocated for stricter rules, including mandatory face masks in public spaces.
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