Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley said Tuesday afternoon he rescinded the COVID-related mask-wearing requirement for businesses effective immediately, rather than risk confusion with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s midday announcement that he was lifting the statewide mask requirement and allowing all businesses to re-open at 100% capacity as of Wednesday next week.
“It’s rescinded,” Whitley said in an interview.
That means businesses can continue to enforce their own mask-wearing requirements, but they’ll no longer have the support of the governor’s orders.
The local and state orders don’t apply to federal property or transit systems and airports. President Biden earlier signed an order requiring mask-wearing on federal property, on transit systems, and in airports. “If you're on Trinity Metro or at the airport, you have to wear a mask," Whitley said in the interview.
The governor's order on business re-openings at 100% capacity goes into effect March 10 statewide.
Whitley told reporters earlier in the day, before Abbott’s expected announcement, that he hoped the governor would wait until after Spring Break and its potential spread of COVID.
"I've always been a proponent of local control," Whitley said. "I wish he'd left it to local control, but he didn't."
Whitley said he sympathized with local business owners who, in their interactions with customers angry about mask requirements, have been able to fall back on the governor's order.
“They’re going to have to do it on their own,” Whitley acknowledged. “I can’t tell you how many restaurant owners and managers have said, ‘now we can blame you’ for the mask rules. I said, ‘that’s fine, put the blame on me.’.”
Abbott’s order does not allow local officials to impose their own rules, unless COVID-related hospitalizations rise above 15% of capacity for seven straight days in any of the state’s 22 regions. At that point, Abbott said during his announcement, a county judge “may use COVID mitigation strategies in their county.”
But in those cases, Abbott said his order bars jailings for failure to comply, and penalties for failure to wear a facemask. And if a county judge imposes restrictions, at least 50% of capacity must be allowed, Abbott said.
Whitley acknowledged the county’s numbers on COVID hospitalizations and new cases “are very good.”
“As I’ve said, every time we get to the point where numbers are looking good, people relax, turn around 180 degrees from where they were, and we see spikes,” he said.