December 4, 2020

Roll Back: DFW Bars Close, Businesses Reduce Capacity as COVID-19 Hospitalizations Hit 7-Day Mark

An order issued by Gov. Greg Abbott (R) lays out a red line: When COVID-19 patients make up 15% or more of a hospital region’s capacity for seven straight days, a series of mandatory limits will activate with few exceptions.

When a TSA meets or exceeds 15% for seven consecutive days it is classified as a high hospitalization TSA. DSHS notifies county judges in the region of the following limits:

• Hospitals must suspend elective surgeries.
• Most businesses drop from 75% capacity to 50% capacity. This includes restaurants, retail stores, gyms, offices, museums, libraries, amusement parks, swimming pools, amusement parks, zoos, aquariums and similar facilities. All professional and college athletics events are already limited to 50% capacity. There are no capacity limits for a limited number of businesses including schools, religious services, and child-care services.
• Bars and other establishments with 51% alcohol sales must close. This overrides any previous exceptions allowing bars to operate at 50% capacity.

North Texas falls into seven different TSAs (pictured below). Just more than half of the counties in North Texas are grouped in TSA-E.

For Thursday December 3, the Texas Department of State Health Services reported TSA-E's percentage of COVID-19 patients was 15.56%. That number, while still above the 15% threshold outlined by the governor, has dropped for two straight-days from a high of 16.4% on Dec. 1.

When Will Restrictions Be Lifted?

Once a TSA spends a week at or above the 15% mark, restrictions will not be lifted until the TSA records seven straight days below the 15% mark.

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October 14, 2020

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins upped the COVID-19 risk level in the county on Wednesday.

The risk level went from orange for “Extreme Caution” to red for “Stay Home Stay Safe”.

“Today we see another high number of new COVID-19 cases with the numbers today being 454 confirmed cases and 50 probable cases for a total of 504 additional cases. The increase in hospitalizations, and new COVID-19 positive cases, as well as other metrics like the R-naught factor being above 1 for several weeks, has led the Public Health Committee to recommend a return to ‘Red’ on our color-coded chart. With a new and quickly escalating wave of COVID-19 cases hitting North Texas, it is more important than ever that we make good decisions,” said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins in a statement. “Things that doctors recommend as safe and permissible in ‘Orange,’ they recommend against in ‘Red.’ These things include dining in restaurants and personal grooming services, among other activities.”

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