On March 3, 2021, Governor Greg Abbott announced that he will end Texas’ statewide mask mandate on Wednesday, March 10, 2021 and will allow all businesses to operate at full capacity. Abbott’s announcement comes nearly one year after Texas, county-by-county and city-by-city and ultimately State-wide, went into a strict lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Executive Order GA-34 memorializes Abbot’s the end of the ask mandate and rescinds most of Abbott’s earlier executive orders issued over the past 12 months to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Even with the end of the mask mandate, however, Abbott has stated that it is still good practice to wear a mask.

The initial lockdown in Texas was lifted in part on May 1, 2020, with Governor Abbott issuing several executive orders detailing his plan for a phased reopening of the Texas economy.   Under the first phase, businesses, restaurants, churches, retailers, movie theaters and malls were allowed to reopen with social distancing protocols and 25% occupancy.

Phase two was initiated on May 22, 2020, allowing more businesses to open at 25% capacity. This included businesses such as bars, bowling alleys, bingo halls, aquariums and childcare facilities. During this time, restaurants were allowed to expand to 50% capacity and outdoor professional sports stadiums were allowed to reopen at 25% capacity.

Governor Abbott began the third phase of reopening Texas on June 3, 2020, in which most businesses were allowed to expand to 50% capacity, while restaurants could expand to 75% capacity and have parties of up to 10 people. Outdoor college stadiums were allowed to reopen with 50% capacity; professional stadiums moved from 25% to 50% capacity. As many experts predicted, COVID-19 case numbers continued to increase. Subsequently, Abbott issued another executive order to reduce capacity at all businesses to 50%, except for dine-in establishments that had less than 51 percent of their gross receipts from the sale of alcoholic beverages, which were allowed to remain at 75% capacity.

On July 2, 2020, Abbott ordered a statewide mask mandate in counties with 20 or more active cases of COVID-19. By August 2020, experts reported that cases were steadily decreasing for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic. After a few months of steady decrease in cases, Abbott issued another executive order in October 2020, which allowed all businesses to operate at 75% capacity. Additionally, churches, childcare facilities, and schools no longer had an occupancy limit under this order.

Texas leaders are now gearing up for the implementation of Abbott’s latest executive order on March 10, when businesses will be allowed to open to 100% with no required mask mandate from the state. County judges will again be able to impose their own mitigation restrictions if COVID-19 hospitalizations rise above 15% in their region for seven straight days. According to state data, there are no counties which currently meet that criterion.

Under GA-34, county judges may not impose jail time for not following COVID-19 orders nor may any penalties be imposed for failing to wear a face mask. Moreover, if restrictions are imposed at a county level, those restrictions may not include reducing capacity to less than 50% for any type of entity.

Throughout the pandemic, we have published updates about the city, county, and state orders closing and reopening businesses.  With the next phase of the reopening of the Texas economy about the start, the attorneys in our Austin and Dallas offices are available to answer any questions you may have.

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