Texas governor says ‘massive’ amount of business to reopen soon

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas will reopen “massive” amounts of businesses soon, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday evening, teasing an imminent return of hair salons and restaurant dining at a time when President Donald Trump is aiming for a swift nationwide reopening from coronavirus closures.

During a Houston television interview, Abbott assured that life in Texas would begin looking more normal in early May but with safety standards in place to limit the spread of the ongoing outbreak. He also signaled that large urban centers, where the coronavirus outbreak is more severe, would begin reopening under different rules than rural areas that have fewer cases.

"This is gonna be happening in the first couple of days in May where you’re gonna be able to go back and go dining under safe standards, you’re gonna be able to get a haircut … but we’re gonna make sure there’ll be safe standards in place so that you will be able to do that without spreading the coronavirus," Abbott said.

More details would come Friday or Monday, Abbott said, and relaxed restrictions would take effect a week after that.

“We're all wanting to get all these businesses back up and running as quickly as possible, and that's exactly what's going to happen in a couple of days when I start announcing all the massive amount of businesses that are going to be opening up in the great state of Texas,” Abbott said.

Americans remain overwhelmingly in favor of stay-at-home orders and other efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus, according to a survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. A majority of Americans also say it won’t be safe to lift social distancing guidelines anytime soon.

Texas began easing some restrictions this week, starting with re-opening some state parks and allowing doctors to perform non-essential surgeries. Abortion clinics also began re-opening Wednesday after being shuttered by some of Abbott's earliest coronavirus restrictions, which set off weeks of court battles.

Currently, Texans can patronize restaurants through takeout or delivery. Starting Friday, retailers will be able to deliver items to customers' cars or homes under the "retail-to-go" model that Abbott recently announced.

Abbott's comments Wednesday seemed to suggest that Texans would soon be able to go inside those establishments, though they would still be required to follow unspecified standards to keep the virus at bay.

His remarks came five days after he announced his initial measures to restart the economy and named a task force.

He has faced pressure from some in the most conservative wing in his party to quickly reopen businesses as they struggle from the economic effects of the virus. Many Democrats, meanwhile, have urged him to slow down.

“If Abbott’s mismanaged timeline wasn’t already too quick, now he’s threatening to put Texans at-risk even faster, while we still rank near the bottom in terms of testing and have yet to hit our peak in deaths," said Abhi Rahman, a spokesman for the state Democratic Party.

On Wednesday, the number of coronavirus cases in Texas surpassed 21,000, with 543 deaths, according to the latest numbers from the Texas Department of State Health Services. The virus has been identified in 200 out of the state's 254 counties.

Some of the state's most populous counties, such as Harris and Dallas counties, remain hotspots, and local leaders there continue to harbor concerns about reopening the economy too quickly. At the same time, some rural counties have had very few or no positive tests, leading some officials there to agitate for a return to normal.

Abbott said he was taking those geographic differences into consideration as he plans his next announcement.

"We are looking at counties where there have been like zero cases, or just a low number of cases … and these would be mostly rural counties. They may be able to have an expanded version of being able to open up," Abbott said.

"And then on the flip side of that," he added, "there are some counties where the outbreak is still progressing too rapidly, and they may not be able to fully participate in the initial phase of reopening until they get the spread of the coronavirus in their county under control."

Abbott has also fielded questions about whether Texas schools will reopen in the fall. He announced last week that they will remain closed for the rest of this academic year.

Abbott said it is too early to tell whether schools can open again after the summer, noting the ongoing concern that the virus can make a "rebound" until a vaccine is finalized. However, he said he expects medicine that treats the virus to become widely available before the fall.

Abbott will be providing an update on April 27 to announce plans to continue reopening the state.