begin partial quote from:
"Failure at the statewide level" is the reason for Texas' coronavirus situation, Austin mayor says
From CNN's Aditi Sangal
As coronavirus cases continue to increase in Texas, Austin Mayor Steve Adler said that it was failure at the statewide level that has brought Texas to its current coronavirus stage.
“I think the lesson to be learned in Texas is you cannot open up the economy in ways that looked like the economy was opened before,” he told CNN on Monday. “I do believe that the failure at the statewide level to have a mandate on masking, [reopening] the economy is one of the chief reasons where we are today.”
Texas' mask mandate went into effect on July 3, weeks after other states issued theirs. Many other states still do not have statewide mandates and there are no federal orders to wear masks.
The mayor said that a mask mandate sends a “clear message” when the message coming out of Washington is “harmful.”
“The message coming out of Washington is harmful, and it's dangerous and causing problems right now across the country. There needs to be a very clear message that masks are mandatory and have to be worn.”
Mayor Adler added that the city of Austin's mask mandate "bought some more time" — but it’s still on the edge.
“We've bought some more time, but if anybody's listening now from Austin, now is not the time to take the foot off the break. We are on the edge,” he said. “We had 17 more people admitted into our ICUs last night. That's a 10% increase. So we're still in a rough place.”
He added that he’s hearing from other hospitals near Austin, asking about ICU availability, and he’s expecting the demand to come from all over the state.
“What happens around the state impacts us,” he said. “We have been calculating our need based on our need and now we realize that it's going to be coming from all over the state. This needs a statewide and a [national] response.”
Watch more:
No comments:
Post a Comment