Health Officials Warn North Texas Residents To Not Let Holiday Weekend Slow Down Progress Against COVID-19
FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - Health officials are warning residents in North Texas to not let Labor Day weekend slow down any progress being made against COVID-19.
Clusters of cases have come out of gatherings throughout the summer, especially after Memorial Day weekend.
"I know Labor Day's coming up, and people are going to want to have backyard cookout," Tarrant County Public Health Director Vinny Taneja said.
"We cannot have another Memorial Day over the Labor Day weekend," Dallas County Health and Human Services Director Philip Huang said.
While this is traditionally the last celebration of summer, governments want people to pass up any party this year.
The concern is that it's those types of gatherings -- everything from baby showers to birthday parties -- that have been connected to virus outbreaks over the last few months.
"You can see that timing, pretty much, start seeing in emergency departments a week after Memorial Day, and then you start seeing hospital admissions after that, and hospitalizations and then deaths after that," Huang said.
With case numbers dropping fast and fewer people in local hospitals, any move back in the other direction could change decisions on getting like back to normal.
Fort Worth is waiting to see how it goes before reopening some park facilities. School districts are waiting to see if they should have students back on campus.
If the trends stay on track, it doesn't mean restrictions will end, but it's more likely they could be eased.
"If everyone will stay the course on that then we think that's our way to do more things, but do it in a safe way," Huang said.
