(Houston) A dozen bar owners have decided to sue the governor of Texas, who on Friday demanded the closure of bars in the southern state after an outbreak of coronavirus cases.
Posted on 30 June 2020 at 18 h 12
France Media Agency
The complainants describe the decision to close bar rooms by Governor Greg Abbott as “radical” and denounce an infringement of the Texas Constitution.
“It is clear that bar owners have less frequent and close interaction with their customers than beauticians, cosmetologists or tattoo artists”, whose businesses have not been obliged to close, they denounce by the voice of their lawyer Jared Woodfill in the complaint, deposited Monday.
They believe that the closure of the bars, which however remain authorized to make deliveries and take-out sales, “relegates” them to the rank of “losers” and would condemn them to bankruptcy.
Texas is one of the first American states to have reopened its economy. As of 1 er May, restaurants, shopping centers, cinemas and stores had been able to reopen at reduced capacity. Bars, hairdressers and beauty salons followed suit in the following weeks.
But since the beginning of June, it has become, with several southern and western states, one of the new centers of contagion of the epidemic.
Last week, while the new cases reported daily exceeded 5000, Greg Abbott had identified “certain types of activities” including “the Texans gathering in bars “as responsible for the explosion of the cases.
In an interview given to a local media on Friday, Greg Abbott commented on his reopening strategy: “If I could go back and change something, I would slow down the reopening of bars, now that I see how the coronavirus is propagates quickly in this configuration. “
Tuesday, Texas broke its daily record and reported 6975 new cases of COVID – 19.
Authorities in Houston, the source of contamination for the state, announced on Tuesday that the wearing of the compulsory mask was being renewed in shops until the end of August.
