Texas governor Abbott has blood on his hands

The large but sparsely populated [Starr] county on the Texas-Mexico border had managed to keep the coronavirus contained in the early months by imposing 14-day quarantine restrictions on people who tested positive, closing businesses before the state ordered closures, linking with private businesses to provide testing, and implementing a curfew with fines and jail penalties.

Then, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott overrode the local decisions and began a phased-in reopening of businesses in the state in April.

“They took the teeth away from us to be able to enforce anything,” said Alberto Perez, the city manager for Rio Grande City, the largest city in the county with a population of more than 64,000.

In the two months after Abbott exerted his authority, Starr County has watched its handful of cases — on many days there were no new ones — steadily climb and spike this month.

On June 22, the county, located in the Rio Grande Valley, saw a peak of 75 new cases. It had reported no deaths from the virus until Tuesday, when there were three. The county had recorded 407 total cases of the coronavirus by Friday, compared to the nine cases it had up to April 29, the day after Abbott made clear his rules trumped those of local officials.

[...]

Most of the cases at the beginning of the pandemic were travel-related, meaning a person who had traveled from outside the county brought it into Starr County. But over about the last month, the county has seen a lot of community and family spread, sometimes through family gatherings, Perez and Vasquez said.

[...]

The county is one of the poorest in the nation and the state, is majority Latino, and many are not insured or are underinsured.

The county has a 49-bed hospital. Critical cases usually go to a hospital in McAllen, about 50 minutes away, but neighboring Rio Grande Valley counties are seeing their hospitalizations and emergency room numbers increase too

[...]

Across Texas, the closings had taken their economic toll and there had been pressure to reopen as unemployment rose. Texas' economy was also being rocked by the drop in oil prices.

But Rose Benavidez, president of the Starr County Industrial Foundation, which helps the local government and businesses develop the local economy, said the county’s early experience shows there is “always a way to try to reconcile the safety and the economic needs of our county."

[...]

On Friday, after four straight days of more than 5,000 new COVID-19 cases for a total of 22,743, Abbott scaled back on the capacity allowed for restaurants and ordered bars to close by noon (but allowed for them to continue with takeout and delivery sales), closed rafting and tubing businesses that are popular in summer with young people, particularly in Central Texas, and issued requirements for permission to hold certain gatherings of 100 or more people.

[...]

Of the 157 rural hospitals in Texas, defined as hospitals in counties with populations of 60,000 or less, about 30 to 40 don’t have ventilators and many don’t have ICU beds, he said. Staffing too is an issue because rural locations may lack specialists, such as critical care physicians and pulmonologists.

  

This should push Texas on over to the blue electoral category. And there should be wrongful death lawsuits filed against Abott.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.