HOUSTON (CN) — The coronavirus pandemic’s fourth wave is battering Texas. The number of Covid-19 hospitalizations statewide is on track to surpass 10,000 this week.
Cities and counties across the state are pushing back against Governor Greg Abbott’s order precluding them from instituting local mask mandates.
Leaders of Bexar County, home to San Antonio, and Dallas County sued Abbott over his orders that threaten government and school officials with $1,000 fines for imposing mask edicts on their staff and students.
A state judge Tuesday afternoon granted Bexar County a temporary restraining order.
Shortly thereafter, San Antonio’s City Manager Erik Walsh announced face masks will be mandatory in area schools and the city’s buildings.
In Dallas, another state judge also ruled against Abbott, authorizing Dallas County to issue its own mask mandate.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, an elected executive not a court of law judge, said he plans to issue an emergency mask order Wednesday in a county commissioners court meeting.
Jenkins, a Democrat, said the delta variant now makes up 97% of cases in North Texas, up from just 12% a month ago, in an online press conference convened Tuesday by the Texas Democratic Party.
“This is about saving lives,” he said, “not about politics and not about lawsuits. We’re going to have these lawsuits to get there, but this need not be partisan.”
Harris County officials in Houston voted Tuesday to give Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee the greenlight to file a legal challenge of Abbott’s ban on local mask orders.
Menefee is expected to sue Abbott on Wednesday. “It’s the job of local officials to protect our students, our vulnerable, our neighbors. But @GovAbbott has banned us from doing so during a pandemic,” Menefee said on Twitter late Tuesday.
The legal offensives come as hospital executives are warning state lawmakers their facilities could soon be overrun with Covid patients.
The University of Texas-Austin’s Covid-19 Modeling Consortium is projecting that by early next week, the number of Texans hospitalized with the coronavirus will exceed the record 14,128 set in January.
Hospitals in and around the state capital Austin had just six staffed ICU beds available on Monday, according to the Austin American-Statesman.
Hospitals in Houston’s Texas Medical Center, the world's largest medical complex, are preparing to convert their medical and surgical beds to ICU beds for people stricken with the delta variant of Covid-19.
With its ICU beds full and staff stretched thin, Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital, a facility run by Harris Health System that treats the indigent, has erected tents in its parking lot to triage patients. And Harris Health has closed two clinics and moved their staff to LBJ Hospital and another safety-net hospital it operates in Harris County, home to Houston.
Patricia Darnauer, executive vice president of Harris Health System, said the age of its seriously ill Covid patients is different from earlier outbreaks.
“We have plenty of patients in our ICUs that have only been in their young 40s, which is a change from prior surges,” she told Houston’s NPR affiliate Tuesday.
Reflecting nationwide trends, 75% of Texans age 65 and older, and roughly 53% of those age 12 to 65, are fully vaccinated against the virus, according to data from the state Department of State Health Services.
Abbott has received Covid inoculations and is encouraging Texans to get the shots, wash their hands, social distance and wear masks. But he has held firm in his belief it’s a matter of personal responsibility that should not be dictated by the government.
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