Governor Greg Abbott will issue an executive order next week to begin the process of reopening Texas businesses, while emphasizing at a Friday press conference the continued importance of social distancing as the number of cases of Covid19 in Texas has not yet reached its peak number and is expected to continue growing for up to the next two weeks.
Abbott says the goal in Texas is to continue to protect lives while at the same time restoring livelihoods.
As of Friday night, there were 12,336 confirmed cases of Coronavirus in the Lone Star State, up 328 from the day before. There are 1.5 million cases worldwide and more than 100,000 fatalities from the illness.
At his press conference, the governor didn’t have details of how he expects businesses to reopen their doors or how long it will take, but Abbott said he will focus on protecting lives while restoring livelihoods, suggesting testing will play a bigger role. So far 116 Texans have been tested for Covid19.
Abbott says Texas ranks second in the nation in the number of recoveries from the virus. He offered a county by county assessment of the virus pandemic's march across Texas.
At a national level, President Trump says choosing when to reopen the economy is the biggest decision he's ever had to make. Trump told reporters Friday that he won't make the push until "we know that this country is going to be safe" from the coronavirus, and said his team is "looking at a date," which is thought to be May 1st. Trump vowed he would listen to medical professionals before making that call. He said, at some point, the coronavirus will be gone and "it won't be that much longer."
Photo courtesy of Getty Pictures