Name: Dallas County extends stay-at-home order until May 15, but may conflict with state orders
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Dallas County extends stay-at-home order until May 15, but may conflict with state orders

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2:00 PM on Apr 21, 2020 CDT — Updated at 5:30 PM on Apr 21, 2020 CDTUpdated at 5:30 p.m.: Revised to include new comments from Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins.An extended Dallas County stay-at-home order may be short lived.Dallas County commissioners voted on Tuesday to extend the county’s stay-at-home order until May 15, two weeks past the statewide order issued by Gov. Greg Abbott and a few days after the governor announced plans to re-open businesses across the state.Shortly after Tuesday’s 3-2 county vote, Abbott indicated during a news briefing that an upcoming executive order could force the county to roll back its stay-at-home restrictions on April 30.Judge Clay Jenkins and commissioners Elba Garcia and Theresa Daniel voted for the extension. Commissioners John Wiley Price and J.J. Koch voted against.Price raised concerns that the order was conflicting with Abbott’s. The governor’s order asserts authority over the entire state and suspends powers of local entities if orders issued conflict with the state order.Related:Abbott, after being asked about Dallas County’s vote and local entities’ authority to maintain restrictions, said he would issue a new statewide executive order Monday that will feature some statewide requirements.“To the extent that my executive order has statewide application, it would overrule any local jurisdiction” with a conflicting local executive order, Abbott said.Dallas County’s safer-at-home now remains in effect until May 15, but Abbott could issue an order next Monday that would supersede the local order.But Jenkins also said at a news conference later on Tuesday that he believes the county’s stay-at-home provisions won’t conflict with the forthcoming changes at the state level because the local order will still direct people to stay home unless visiting a business that is allowed to open or for exercise.He added that keeping the stay-at-home provisions is necessary to continue slowing spread of COVID-19 as the economy slowly reopens.“If we rush it, we ruin it,” Jenkins said, acknowledging an urgency to reopen more businesses.Last week, Abbott announced that elective surgeries would resume Wednesday and that retailers could start selling to-go orders on Friday. State parks reopened Monday with social distancing requirements. He also announced that schools would remain closed to the end of the school year.Related:But reopening businesses and lifting movement restrictions too soon could result in another wave of COVID-19 cases in Dallas County, local health experts warned the county commissioners court.Dr. Mark Casanova, president of the Dallas Medical Society, said that adequate testing, adequate numbers of protective equipment and maintenance of hospital capacity will be key as the county monitors the slow reopening of the economy.“But I think keeping a strong premise and foundation of stay at home, continued monitors and testing would give us the ability to see if the gubernatorial, state-mandated relaxations are serving us well in North Texas,” Casanova said.The slow reopening of the Texas economy has the medical community “on the edge of our seats,” Dr. Robert Haley, Director of the Division of Epidemiology in the Internal Medicine Department at UT Southwestern, told commissioners during Tuesday’s meetingSome experts, Haley said, are wary that the reopening of business will cause a resurgence of the disease and cause a spike in cases similar to those before the shelter-in-place orders were implemented.“This is a very dangerous thing we’re doing right now and we might get away with it,” Haley said.Staff writers Allie Morris and Nic Garcia contributed to this report.Get the latest coronavirus updates delivered to your inbox by signing up for our exclusive newsletter.By signing up you agree to our

2:00 PM on Apr 21, 2020 CDT — Updated at 5:30 PM on Apr 21, 2020 CDTUpdated at 5:30 p.m.: Revised to include new comments from Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins.An extended Dallas County stay-at-home order may be short lived.Dallas County commissioners voted on Tuesday to extend the county’s stay-at-home order until May 15, two weeks past the statewide order issued by Gov. Greg Abbott and a few days after the governor announced plans to re-open businesses across the state.Shortly after Tuesday’s 3-2 county vote, Abbott indicated during a news briefing that an upcoming executive order could...

Dallas County extends stay-at-home order until May 15, but may conflict with state orders

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