Name: Powerless to issue restrictions, Hidalgo urges no multi-household Thanksgiving gatherings
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Powerless to issue restrictions, Hidalgo urges no multi-household Thanksgiving gatherings

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This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateFor the eight months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo has been a bearer of bad news.Even as Gov. Greg Abbott has reopened Texas in phases beginning in May, Hidalgo since June has steadfastly urged residents to stay home when possible, leading critics to see her as Houston’s Chicken Little as virus cases and hospitalizations declined for months after the summer spike.More Coronavirus NewsHidalgo on Tuesday made her latest and most dire request, asking residents to cancel their Thanksgiving plans and avoid multi-household gatherings through the holidays to slow the spread of COVID-19, which again is surging here.She cited worsening statistics: The daily average of new cases has jumped 250 percent since September; the test positivity rate has increased by a third to 8.2 percent. Hospitalizations are the highest they have been since Labor Day.“It’s human nature to get complacent and want to give in, to be tired,” Hidalgo said. “But we can’t do that right now. We have a narrow window in this moment to turn this ship around and avoid what we saw in June and July, or much worse — what’s happening in El Paso or other parts of the country.”El Paso is so overwhelmed with COVID deaths that inmates from the county jail are helping with overflow bodies, and the county has set up eight trailers to hold bodies until there is room in the medical examiner’s office. The United States has recorded more than 100,000 new cases for nine straight days, and its death count has exceeded 246,000.The county also sent an emergency cell phone alert to all residents urging them to get tested for the virus, regardless of whether they have symptoms, as uncontrolled community spread has driven up new case and hospitalization numbers.Epidemiologists long have estimated the actual number of infected Texans is far higher than the 1 million cases discovered through tests. Researchers at the University of Texas estimated this week that total figure is , 16 percent of the state’s population.Adherence to Hidalgo’s requests is voluntary, since Gov. Greg Abbott in April stripped local officials of the ability to issue their own COVID-related restrictions. The governor rebuffed Hidalgo’s request in June for a new stay-at-home order; she warned during her annual State of the County remarks last week that new restrictions may be needed to combat this most recent wave of infections.Harris Health CEO Dr. Esmaeil Porsa said Thanksgiving poses a far greater risk than Memorial Day or July 4, especially because it creates an opportunity for infected but asymptomatic young people to spread the virus to parents and grandparents within confined spaces.“We now have a groundswell of COVID-19 cases in this community waiting for a super-spreader event to occur to completely turn the table on us,” Porsa said.Dr. Umair Shah, the outgoing Harris County health authority, estimated the pandemic may only be half over and said residents must be especially vigilant during the holidays, when many indoor family gatherings traditionally take place.Mayor Sylvester Turner made a similar plea to residents on Monday, when he for the first time in its 71-year history.At no point has Harris County reached its goal of a two-week average positive test rate below 5 percent. Hidalgo in June unveiled a to help residents keep the pandemic top of mind. Within weeks, she upgraded the county to Level 1, , which advises residents to remain home when possible and avoid unnecessary contact with others. It has remained there ever since.By the fall, however, few residents appeared to be heeding her advice. Mixed messaging from different levels of government created confusion. Abbott in September allowed restaurants, gyms and nursing homes to open to 75 percent capacity.The governor allowed bars to open to 50 percent beginning October, at the discretion of county leaders. Hidalgo said no for Harris, but a found many bars already had swung open their doors, taking advantage of lax enforcement by state regulators and a loophole that allowed many to effectively reclassify as restaurants.A hospital executive said a string of bars on Westheimer on an October evening “looked like New Year’s Eve pre-COVID.”The city in September resumed issuing permits for limited-attendance events, including crowds of up to 3,000 at BBVA Stadium. The Houston Texans have hosted more than 12,000 fans at NRG Stadium.Hidalgo said Abbott has reopened the state too quickly. She said that strategy has failed since Texas is dealing with its third surge in cases, after spikes in the spring and summer, instead of bringing the virus under control in the first place.“We’ve seeing history repeat itself, over and over again,” Hidalgo said. “What we need to adopt is an enforceable threat level system, like the one we’ve been using, that lays out a series of metrics, that doesn’t pick and choose the one that happens to look good at the time.”zach.despart@chron.com

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateFor the eight months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo has been a bearer of bad news.Even as Gov. Greg Abbott has reopened Texas in phases beginning in May, Hidalgo since June has steadfastly urged residents to stay home when possible, leading critics to see her as Houston’s Chicken Little as virus cases and hospitalizations declined for months after the summer spike.More Coronavirus NewsHidalgo on Tuesday made her latest and most dire request, asking residents to cancel their Thanksgiving plans and avoid...

Powerless to issue restrictions, Hidalgo urges no multi-household Thanksgiving gatherings

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