Wednesday, 03 Mar 2021 08:01 AM MYT
“It is now time to open Texas 100 per cent,” Abbott, a first-term Republican, told a news conference. He said the order would take full effect on March 10. Local officials can still apply limits to businesses where hospitalizations remain high, according to the order, but were prohibited from mandating that they operate at less than 50 per cent capacity.
The decision puts Texas in conflict with US President Joe Biden, a Democrat who has urged Americans to keep taking Covid-19 precautions, including wearing masks, until vaccinations have fully tamped down the virus.“I hope the governor rethinks this. It's only a small piece of cloth that's needed,” White House Covid-19 adviser Andy Slavitt told CNN, referring to masks. “I don't think it affects the economy of the state.
More than 51 million Americans, or 15 per cent of the total US population, have been given at least one vaccine dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.