by Catherine Smith
Covid cases are falling in Texas, over two weeks after Gov. Greg Abbott (R) lifted restrictions, including the statewide mask mandate, Breitbart reported.
In March, Abbott announced the end of the statewide mask mandate, which had been in effect since July, and lifted restrictions allowing businesses to operate at 100 percent capacity.
“It is time for Texas to be open 100 percent,” the governor said at the time. “Everybody that wants a job should be able to get a job. Every business that wants to be open should be open.”
According to Breitbart, the Governor’s decision drew criticism from leftists, many of whom had spent the last year criticizing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) for refusing to embrace blue state lockdown measures. President Biden reacted to the news of both Texas and Mississippi lifting their statewide mask mandates by describing their actions as a form of “Neanderthal thinking.”
“I think it’s a big mistake,” Biden told reporters, adding, “The last thing, the last thing we need is Neanderthal thinking that in the meantime, everything’s fine, take off your mask, forget it.”
However, Breitbart reports recent data out of Texas shows Covid-19 cases have been on a decline over two weeks after the state lifted its restrictions. On Saturday, the state’s seven-day positivity rate reached an all-time low of 5.27 per cent, while hospitalizations fell to their lowest level since October.
According to Breitbart’s report, “the seven-day caseload per capita has also dipped, dropping from 94.6 new cases per 100,000, or 27,424 cases on March 21 to 91.3 per 100,000 in the last seven days, or 26,486 new cases, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) March 28 data. In contrast, New York, which continues to embrace restrictive measures as well as a statewide mask mandate, continues to report more cases, both per capita and in volume, than the Lone Star State.”
“CDC data, which separates New York City data from the rest of the state, shows New York reporting 233.1 cases per 100,000 in the last seven days, or 25,769 cases. New York City has reported 424.9 cases per 100,000 in the last week, or 35,689 cases,” the report says.
“Combined, the state has reported nearly 35,000 more cases of the virus than Texas in the same time frame despite having a statewide mask mandate and various restrictions in place,” Breitbart reports.
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Catherine Smith reports for American Greatness.
