Dallas and Tarrant counties have received a letter from Texas Health and Human Services notifying them of the action plan for reopening rollbacks.
This comes after Trauma Service Area E, which makes up 19 North Texas counties, had seven consecutive days of COVID-19 patients taking up more than 15% of available hospital beds.
The TSA-E hospital region includes: Collin, Cooke, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Erath, Fannin, Grayson, Hood, Hunt, Johnson, Kaufman, Navarro, Palo Pinto, Parker, Rockwall, Somervell, Tarrant, and Wise counties.
The letter outlines the reopening rollbacks from Governor Greg Abbott’s executive order that must go into effect as of Saturday after COVID-19 hospitalizations passed the set threshold.
Restaurants, retail stores, and gyms must reduce capacity to 50%, and bars must close.
Hospitals were also ordered to stop elective surgeries. But some North Texas hospitals are continuing with those surgeries, as the order maintains elective surgeries are allowed if it “would not deplete any hospital capacity needed to cope with the COVID-19 disaster.”
These state-imposed restriction rollbacks will now last until the hospitalization rate in North Texas falls below 15% for seven consecutive days.
On Saturday, there were 14.94% COVID-19 hospitalizations in North Texas, marking the first time it's dropped below the 15% threshold since the reopening rollbacks.
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