Gov. Abbott Working to Avoid Arrests During Pandemic

SAN ANTONIO, TX –  Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Monday clarified why he would not be returning power to local authorities over coronavirus restrictions due to an incident that occurred in Dallas back in May.

Abbott went on to explain how the incident in Dallas which led to a salon owner's arrest after she failed follow local orders and continued to operate after all businesses deemed non-essential were forced to close is what's keeping him from giving back power to local authorities.

Gov. Abbott went on to say, “Let’s say we give them the power. How are they going to enforce it? A person was not following the citation, she got arrested. My point is it almost inevitably leads to arrests.”

Abbott argued that arresting people during a global pandemic was in fact not the answer and adding the power to mandate masks is "enough for local authorities to use". 

After being questioned on the social media response to his recent moves during the pandemic, Abbott noted that every decision he has made was made based off the correct math.

“Let’s use the facts. The facts are these; we opened up on April 27. The month of April there was a constant downtrend in positivity rate," Gov. Abbott said, "Which is one of the standards by the White House Coronavirus Team for opening up".

Abbott also noted the month of May continued to see a downward trend in positivity rates, including an all-time low in positivity rates on May 26 after memorial day when the positivity rate was only 4.27%.

He said, "For an entire month after we opened up Texas was going in the right direction. What we learned is that after Memorial Day, once bars opened up, we learned that bars and gatherings were areas that lead to higher transmissions. Hence, we used that data to then have an executive order that shut down those areas that were transmission zones for COVID-19."