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Houston mask mandate might violate Texas governor's order

Last Updated Aug 3, 2021 at 1:00 pm MDT

HOUSTON (AP) — Houston city workers are being told they must resume wearing masks while on the job, a requirement that could go against Gov. Greg Abbott’s most recent executive order banning such mandates.

Mayor Sylvester Turner issued the mask mandate on Monday due to a “recent uptick in positive COVID-19 cases in our community and in our workplace linked to the new delta variant.”

“It is so very important that we remain vigilant in doing our part to reduce the spread of COVID-19,” Turner wrote in memo to all city employees. The new order was first reported on by the Houston Chronicle.

The new order requires all employees to wear a mask while on city premises and when they can’t be socially distant from others. In Dallas County, an administrative court judge has ordered that anyone entering a county courthouse must be wearing a mask to be admitted.

Last month, Gov. Greg Abbott repeated his executive order banning mask mandates by any state, county or local government entity.

Abbott has previously said that local governments attempting to impose mask mandates could be fined up to $1,000.

Similar local mask mandates that appeared to be in conflict with state orders have faced legal action by the Texas Attorney General’s Office.

A spokeswoman for Abbott’s office and a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office didn’t immediately reply to emails seeking comment Tuesday.

The mask mandate in Houston comes as hospitalizations across the state continue to rise due in part to the highly contagious delta variant.

On Monday, there were 6,853 people in Texas hospitals with COVID-19, which was the most since Feb. 22.

The resurgence of COVID-19 in Texas has put some cities’ health systems in dire circumstances, as intensive care unit beds fill up, officials say.

In South Texas, Nueces County Judge Barbara Canales this week said hospitals in Corpus Christi, Victoria, Kingsville and Beeville were limited in their ability to handle the latest COVID-19 surge of patients due to a shortage of nurses. San Antonio is also facing a similar nursing shortage amid a spike in patients.

Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, said during a news conference Tuesday he worried the return this month of Texas children to classrooms could make the situation worse in the state. Hotez asked officials to help students get through the school year safely with the help of social distancing, masks and vaccines.

“If we don’t do that, it’s really hard to imagine how things go well,” he said. “You’ve got delta accelerating, low vaccination rates among adolescents, young adults, no ability to enforce mask mandates. What makes people think this is going to go well?”

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Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70

Juan A. Lozano, The Associated Press