Texas Governor Abbott Lifts Mask Mandate And Allows Businesses 100% Capacity

Texas gov lifts mask mandate & OKs businesses to operate at 100% capacity

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has lifted many of the Covid-19 restrictions in his state, permitting businesses to operate at 100-percent capacity starting March 10 and repealing the requirement for people to wear face coverings.

Abbott delivered the “exciting news” during a speech to the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, informing the assembled small business and community leaders that the mask mandate – in place since July – was no more.

“We must now do more to restore livelihoods and normalcy for Texans by opening Texas 100 percent,”Abbott said in a statement on Tuesday – Texas' Independence Day. “Make no mistake, Covid-19 has not disappeared, but it is clear from the recoveries, vaccinations, reduced hospitalizations, and safe practices that Texans are using that state mandates are no longer needed.”

The announcement that businesses would be permitted to operate at full capacity going forward doubtless came as a relief for those establishments struggling to return to full operation in the wake of one of the worst storms in Texas’ history. The snowstorm late last month took out power, heat, and other utilities to over four million Texans, killing dozens.

The governor’s view contrasted sharply with that of President Joe Biden, who has so latched on to the idea of masks that he actually planned to send millions of them all around the country. He also expects Americans to remain obediently masked-up through to 2022, and declared the US would have enough Covid-19 vaccines to give everyone a jab by the end of the summer.

‘Mass murder’ and ‘reckless’: Texas ending mask mandates triggers Democrat meltdown

The announcement by Governor Greg Abbott that Texas will fully reopen next week is drawing backlash from mask mandate champions such as his California colleague Gavin Newsom and other Democrats – and counter-backlash as well.

Abbott marked the anniversary of the 1836 Texan independence on Tuesday by announcing that the state will reopen “100 percent” by next week in order to “restore livelihoods and normalcy.” 

While Covid-19 has not disappeared, state mandates are “no longer needed” to force people to maintain safety practices, so the Texans can “have the freedom to determine their own destiny,” added Abbott, a Republican.

Abbott’s announcement triggered an avalanche of criticism on Twitter, if not in actual Texas, with critics invoking the standard talking point used against Republican governors reluctant to impose strict lockdowns or mask mandates: they are against “science” and want people to die.

Abbott is “a mass murderer,” tweeted conspiracy theorist and outspoken Resistance activist Bill Palmer.

There were even comparisons to another famous Texan – former US President George W. Bush – and his 'Mission accomplished' moment, prematurely celebrating victory in Iraq in May 2003. Though the initial US invasion succeeded, the bloody occupation would drag on for more than eight years after that.

Then there was Newsom, the governor who imposed the strictest lockdown rules on California and continues to ban all indoor dining to this day. He commented on a wire report about the Texas reopening by calling it “absolutely reckless.”

Newsom’s post prompted backlash in the opposite direction, with his critics posting reminders of the governor violating his own lockdown rules – both last year, with the infamous mask-less dinner with lobbyists at the posh French Laundry restaurant, and just this weekend, when he met with comedian George Lopez inside a Fresno eatery and apparently dined on the premises despite his own rules making that a no-no.