Opening Houston with New Guidelines
Despite some of the highest number of deaths and new cases, the state is pushing forward to open businesses slowly and safely. County and city officials are emphasizing the need to still keep our social distancing, wear face coverings around others, and to try staying home from work, school, and social activities despite its challenges.
According to Harris County Judge Hidalgo “The governor’s phased reopening will only have a chance of success if we do it that way – in phases. If a business is not “essential” under our order, or “reopened” under the governor’s order, it should not open. Most importantly, just because you *can* open, doesn’t mean you should state the Judge. “The resurgence of a virus that can knock us back down and put us right back where we began is right around the corner.”
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo announced a four-point strategy designed to contain the spread of COVID-19 as a phased approach to reopen the economy across Texas begins to ramp up. The framework contains four key components, or the Four T’s, including:
testing higher-risk community members;
tracing, or working to identify and isolate new cases by tracing the contacts of infected individuals,
treatment, or closely tracking key indicators of disease spread and hospital capacity; and
teamwork, or encouraging everyone in our community to do their part to stop the disease from spreading by meeting virtually, using face coverings, and supporting contact tracers.
The goal is to ensure that COVID-19 cases are contained, and that hospital admissions continue to decline.
“If the economy will begin opening May 1st, in order to keep it open, it’s vital we follow a smart containment strategy that ensures our systems are prepared to identify, test, and treat those who are sick,” said Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo. “Achieving containment that is sustainable will be a tall order given the May 1st timeline, and we cannot afford to erase the gains our community has sacrificed so much to achieve. Harris County will do everything possible to preserve what we have accomplished thus far, and this framework will help us get there.”
As part of the plan, Harris County will immediately begin recruiting hundreds of new contact tracers to identify and support isolation efforts. The contact tracers will work to locate everyone in contact with infected residents and ensure they are tested and/or self-isolating for at least 14 days. At the same time, Harris County will continue to expand the availability of testing for anyone who has reason to believe that they may be infected, including close contacts of individuals who test positive, and other higher-risk groups. For additional information visit ReadyHarris.org.