Mask mandates are back in Dallas County. As of 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, all businesses, public schools, and county buildings must require mask-wearing to prevent the spread of the delta variant of COVID-19, according to an executive order signed today by Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins.
The order requires all public-facing businesses, including restaurants, bars, grocery stores, and retailers, to require “all employees and visitors” to wear masks indoors. (The exact language is “all commercial entities that provide goods and services to the public.”) Same goes for child care centers and schools, pre-K through 12th grades, as well as all county buildings. At restaurants, customers can take off their masks while eating or drinking. The order does not apply to anything outdoors.
Businesses that don’t comply within three days could face a fine of up to $1,000 for each violation, Jenkins said on a Zoom call with reporters Wednesday afternoon. Individuals won’t face any criminal or civil penalties for not wearing a mask inside a business, school, or other entity.
Jenkins’ order follows a judge’s ruling on Tuesday night that an executive order from Gov. Greg Abbott that banned such mask mandates was not a “necessary action” to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. “Judge Jenkins cannot be precluded from implementing the mitigation strategies he believes are sound, reliable, and backed by scientific evidence,” reads the restraining order from Judge Tonya Parker.
This legal wrangling stems from a lawsuit filed by one of Jenkins’ colleagues on the commissioners court, J.J. Koch, who refused to wear a mask at a meeting of the executive body last week. He then sued to have Jenkins removed from office. The parents of 12 children with medical conditions that make them vulnerable to COVID-19 joined in Jenkins’ counter-filing in that case, which sought to bypass Abbott’s ruling on local mask mandates.
Abbott’s attorneys will certainly appeal and try again to limit Jenkins’ power. If those appeals are successful, Dallas County could be looking at a “mask on, mask off” situation, legally speaking, said attorneys who were on the Zoom call with Jenkins.
For now, it’s masks on. Jenkins invoked the language of a war to describe the continuing fight against COVID-19.
“This is not parents vs. Gov. Abbott, or Clay Jenkins vs. Gov. Abbott, or the vaccinated vs. the un-vaccinated,” Jenkins said. “This is all of us. We are all team public health and the enemy is the virus. And right now the enemy is winning.”
Dallas County just announced 3,000 new cases of the virus over three days. According to the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council, more than 2,500 people are now hospitalized with COVID-19 across our 19-county service area. Hospitals are nearing capacity, particularly in rural counties, and on Wednesday only two pediatric ICU beds were available in North Texas.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that people living in areas with high COVID-19 transmission, which includes all of North Texas, should wear masks indoors, regardless of their vaccination status. This latest surge of COVID-19 cases, driven by a more contagious variant of the virus and worsened by a staffing crisis at area hospitals, is beginning to rival peaks seen earlier in the pandemic.
Jenkins’ new order does not include the capacity limits that we saw in public health orders issued earlier in the pandemic. That could change, he said. “Everything is being considered,” he said. “Doctors and I are looking at this daily. But this is where we are right now.”
Along with the requirements for businesses and schools, Jenkins’ order strongly urges mask-wearing in any “public indoor setting.” And, he said, in a plea that’s been repeated again and again by public health officials, vaccinations remain the most effective way to curb the spread of COVID-19, and to lessen the virus’ impact among those who do get sick.
“With more vaccination, particularly, comes a better outlook for everyone and more freedom,” Jenkins said.
