After Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, pictured Monday, indicated support for the rule, at least 10 of Texas’ largest counties quickly implemented orders that businesses require face masks or risk fines.
Photo: Ricardo B. Brazziell/Associated PressHOUSTON—On Monday, the first day that businesses here were required to make their customers wear face coverings, a few walked out of Phoenicia Specialty Foods in protest, said Haig Tcholakian, owner of the Houston grocery chain.
He didn’t mind. The store wants everyone to wear masks inside and finally has a reason to enforce that: The county is making them. Plus, he added, he can tell them he risks fines if their faces remain uncovered—since some people may find an economic argument more compelling than a health one.
After weeks of record-breaking Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations across Texas, his county, Harris, and others are now making it a requirement that businesses make their customers mask up. Cities and counties were told only last week that they are allowed to implement mask rules.
Whether the government can force citizens to cover their faces has been the subject of political debate here. Some people oppose the requirement, saying it violates their personal liberty; others say the public-health reality of rapidly rising virus cases and hospitalizations necessitate masks.
Patrons at a restaurant and bar in Austin in May. Whether the government can force citizens to cover their faces has been the subject of political debate.
Photo: Alex Scott/Bloomberg NewsBexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, the first local official to impose mask rules on businesses, in the San Antonio area, was at a Lowe’s on Wednesday afternoon to buy gardening supplies when he saw an angry customer arguing with the store cashier about wearing a mask, Mr. Wolff’s spokeswoman said. When the judge tried to intervene, explain the policy and offer his business card, the man slapped the card from the 79-year-old official’s hand and ran, she said.
A debate over masking has also played out in Arizona. Both states have seen surging cases of the virus since beginning to reopen in May.
The Texas border city of Laredo was the first in the country to mandate masks, in April, after spikes in Covid-19 cases there. But after major cities with Democratic leadership such as Austin and Houston followed suit, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, explicitly banned local jurisdictions from forcing people to cover their faces.
Related Video
Last week, however, as Covid-19 cases in Texas surged, Mr. Wolff found a loophole in Mr. Abbott’s order by placing the burden on businesses to require masks, rather than directly requiring them of residents. Mr. Abbott blessed the move, telling a local television station that a local leader had “finally figured that out.” The words prompted condemnations from many Democrats and major newspapers that Mr. Abbott was playing games with constituents by governing in riddles.
Mr. Abbott faced criticisms as well from some conservatives that he was backtracking on matters of personal liberty. The situation escalated when a recording was leaked of two staffers from Empower Texans, a powerful far-right interest group, excoriating Mr. Abbott over the mask issue in an expletive-ridden rant that also made fun of Mr. Abbott’s use of a wheelchair.
Mr. Abbott condemned the rhetoric and maintained that requiring businesses to require masks was a possibility he had planned to allow all along. At least 10 of Texas’ largest counties quickly implemented orders that businesses require face masks or risk fines.
Employees awaiting customers at Juan in a Million, a restaurant in Austin.
Photo: Bronte Wittpenn/Zuma Press“He’s walking a tightrope, there’s no question,” said Matt Mackowiak, Travis County GOP chairman and commentator. “I think they intentionally built in flexibility [to the order]. Whether it needed to be mysterious or not is an open question, but ultimately, no one knew how the reopening was going to go.”
Many members of the business community said they like the new face-covering rules, because it gives them a stronger justification against irate customers to enforce health measures they want to enforce anyway.
“We’re kind of relieved,” said Augie Bering V, owner of Bering’s hardware stores in Houston. “We had some customers masked and some not, but I didn’t want to turn those customers away at the door and make them mad. But if everyone has to do it, our customers will get on board.”
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS
What measures should Gov. Abbott endorse to slow the spread of coronavirus in Texas? Join the conversation below.
Still, Mr. Bering said, some of the stores’ executive team were a bit put out that the burden of enforcing a controversial mandate was placed on store employees. George Kelemen, president and CEO of the Texas Retailers Association, said he supports people wearing masks, but said if customers don’t want to, there’s not much business owners can or should do.
“Our biggest issue is making clear to the local authorities that local retailers are not and should not be the enforcers,” he said. “If a customer says, ‘No, I don’t want to wear a face covering and I don’t have to,’ most retailers will probably let the person go on their way.”
Health authorities have been sounding the alarm on surging Texas Covid-19 cases. Dr. Marc Boom, CEO of Houston Methodist hospital network, said drastic action is needed to stop area hospitals from becoming overwhelmed within the next three weeks.
“The masking order for businesses was a great thing,” Dr. Boom said. “I’d love to see a broader masking order.”
Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen took aim at mask skeptics, many of them his fellow Republicans, in a strongly worded statement Monday.
“If these so-called patriots persist in flaunting their disregard for others, we’re in for a very long, dark summer with a deadly array of medical and economic consequences,” Mr. Bonnen said.
Write to Elizabeth Findell at Elizabeth.Findell@wsj.com
Copyright ©2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
"some" - Google News
June 25, 2020 at 07:16PM
https://ift.tt/3eKUlcx
Some Texas Counties Impose Mask Requirement on Businesses - The Wall Street Journal
"some" - Google News
https://ift.tt/37fuoxP
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Some Texas Counties Impose Mask Requirement on Businesses - The Wall Street Journal"
Post a Comment