Texas Again Orders Bars to Close, Restaurants to Reduce Capacity Amid Coronavirus Surge

After a record 5,996 new COVID-19 cases in Texas were reported yesterday, Governor Greg Abbott has ordered bars to once again close and restaurants to drop back to 50% guest occupancy. The order goes into effect at 12:01 a.m. on Monday, June 29.

The first shutdown of bars was ordered on March 16. These were allowed to reopen on May 22 at 25% capacity and increase capacity to 50% on June 3. This time around, the order seems to leave an avenue for bars to continue doing business under a to-go and delivery model. The relevant verbiage reads, “that the use by such bars or similar establishments of drive-thru, pickup, or delivery options for food and drinks is allowed to the extent authorized by TABC.” (Note that a “bar” is defined as a business that gets 51% or more of its revenue from the sale of alcoholic beverages.)

Unlike during the first shutdown, this time Abbott has not ordered restaurants to close dining rooms and offer to-go and delivery only, instead only requiring that owners reduce guest capacity from 75% to 50%. However, some restaurant owners are voluntarily doing rolling back to to-go and delivery-only on their own.

Abbott also granted an exception to counties with few COVID-19 cases among residents, provided that the county “has
filed with DSHS, and is in compliance with, the requisite attestation form promulgated by DSHS regarding minimal cases of COVID-19.” It’s not immediately clear what the criteria is for defining whether or not the number of coronavirus cases in a county are “minimal.”

This is a developing news story with more updates to come. 

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