Gov. Greg Abbott will update Texans on Monday afternoon as to his plans to reopen the Texas economy sometime early next month. The governor’s decision to reopen the state comes as Texas has yet to flatten the COVID-19 curve or make serious headway into curbing the number of new daily coronavirus cases.
It also arrives as a new poll by the University of Texas-Texas Tribune show 66 percent of registered Texan voters favor the closure of “non-essential” businesses and 77 percent of Texans support the state’s stay-at-home order.
The numbers aren’t too dissimilar from national polling. The latest Kaiser Family Foundation poll found 80 percent of Americans agree with strict shelter-in-place measures as a way to fight to the outbreak.
The recent polling is evidence that despite a rowdy and noisy minority of right-wing leaders, including President Trump and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, most Texans and Americans support state-enforced social distancing measures.
As of Sunday, 24,631 confirmed cases have been reported in Texas with 648 fatalities.
Photo: Dan Tian/Xinhua via Getty Images
Fernando covers Texas politics and government at the Texas Signal. Before joining the Signal, Fernando spent two years at the Houston Chronicle and previously interned at Houston’s NPR station News 88.7. He is a graduate of the University of Houston, Jack J. Valenti School of Communication, and enjoys reading, highlighting things, and arguing on social media. You can follow him on Twitter at @fernramirez93 or email at fernando@texassignalarchive.com
