Metropolis of San Antonio
Staff at San Antonio’s Alamodome vaccination website administer COVID-19 photographs in the course of the top of the pandemic.
Regardless of COVID-19 circumstances rising in Bexar County and throughout Texas, a brand new state legislation banning municipal pandemic-related well being and security measures is about to enter impact Sept. 1.
Beginning Friday, native governments in Texas shall be prohibited from implementing masks mandates, requiring staff to be vaccinated and from forcing personal companies to close all the way down to keep away from the unfold of communicable illnesses.
These restrictions on metropolis and county motion are all a part of Senate Invoice 29, signed by Gov. Greg Abbott on the shut of Texas’ final legislative session. Whereas the legislation ties the palms of municipal officers, it would not prohibit personal entities from enacting their very own guidelines, which means companies might nonetheless require prospects to put on masks, for instance.
Legislative Republicans championed SB 29 to appease their social gathering’s proper flank. Many railed towards pandemic restrictions as tyranny, some even claiming the well being disaster was a fraud. Democrats largely opposed the measure, warning that it might stop a sturdy response to a future outbreak.
“I perceive the place this laws comes from,” Rep. Erin Zwiener, D-Driftwood, stated in a Home speech opposing SB 29, based on the Texas Tribune. “It comes from the frustration of the early days of the pandemic. However I’m involved this laws is probably short-sighted. … The reality is, we don’t know what the subsequent variant seems like.”
To make certain, the legislation goes into impact as COVID-19 circumstances proceed a steep climb.
Metro Well being counted 2,682 confirmed COVID-19 circumstances in Bexar County in the course of the seven-day interval that ended Aug. 28. That is 717 extra circumstances than the week prior and a 710% enhance in circumstances since circumstances started rising in Bexar County in the course of the seven-day interval that ended July 3.
Even so, solely six individuals in Bexar County have been hospitalized resulting from COVID-19 throughout that point. Though infections are rising, extreme sickness stays rarer than it did in the course of the first phases of the pandemic, based on medical specialists.
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