The view from Texas: With a spike in new coronavirus cases, did the Lone Star state reopen too soon?

State sees record-high number of new cases, but governor blames localised outbreaks. Richard Hall reports from Texas.

Mariachi musicians, wearing face masks, play for diners at a restaurant that has reopened to 50 per cent capacity on the River Walk in San Antonio, Wednesday, May 27, 2020. (AP / Eric Gay)

A giant dispenser of hand sanitiser awaits customers in the entrance of the Pirate Cuts hair salon in Vidor, a small town in east Texas. Next to it sits a notice with a list of instructions: sanitise, sign in, and take a seat.

“When we first reopened we had a long line of people with long hair queueing up around the block,” says Machelle, one of the stylists. “Now it’s quiet again.”

For a journalist who has spent the past three months in lockdown in New York — the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak — getting a haircut was a strange experience. Doing the same in New York is strictly prohibited. In fact, one barber is currently under investigation for breaking state rules to carry on cutting hair. His actions were condemned further when it turned out that he had contracted the coronavirus.

But the Lone Star state is handling the coronavirus very differently. While much of the world is still under strict lockdown measures in order to stop the spread of Covid-19, Texas has been largely reopened for more than a month.

The state’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott, allowed the state’s stay-at-home order to expire at the end of April, and issued an order that overruled any attempts by local governments to issue further restrictions on businesses. It was one of the shortest lockdowns in the country.

Barbershops, hair salons, bars and gyms opened a couple of weeks later. Even massage parlours and tattoo shops are now doing business again.

Those decisions have made Texas a canary in the coalmine for other states who were on the path to reopening, and potentially a cautionary tale. After a month-long plateau of coronavirus cases through much of May, the state is now witnessing another spike. But this wave is already worse than the last.

On Tuesday, for the fifth day in a row, Texas reported a record high number of hospitalisations due to the coronavirus. Speaking at a press conference, governor Abbott reported that 2,518 people were now hospitalised with the virus, a roughly 30 per cent increase since May. In total the state had the sixth highest number of infections of any state – more than 87,000 – and at least 1,900 deaths.

But he sought to downplay fears of a second outbreak, blaming specific outbreaks in local settings and claiming that Texas has “abundant” hospital capacity.

“More important than the numbers you may hear about on a daily basis are the reasons behind those numbers,” he said, citing a breakout in the Texas prison system being reported in one batch and a data error in another county.

He added that young people are increasingly contracting the virus at “bar-type settings” and urged greater caution.

Amid concerns of the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19, a baseball fan has their temperature checked by a security guard before being allowed to tour Globe Life Field, home of the Texas Rangers baseball team in Arlington, Texas, Monday, June 1, 2020. (AP / LM Otero ) (AP / LM Otero)

But the increase in cases is something many doctors and public health officials warned of when Mr Abbott pushed ahead with reopening.

Across the country, politicians are facing a delicate balancing act between restarting the economy and protecting against a second wave of the virus — with some acting faster than others.

Some doctors in Texas have speculated that a lack of precaution taken by residents over the Memorial Day weekend at the end of May contributed to the spike across the state.

"People are just kind of 'over this' and not paying attention to social distancing. We are seeing a lot of people who’ve said 'I’ve done my part, and I've given up'," Dr James McCarthy, the chief physician executive for Memorial Hermann hospital in Houston, told the Houston Chronicle.

"I'm concerned by behaviours I see where people are ignoring that it's out there," he added.

Another factor that may worsen the spike is mass protests over the police killing of George Floyd. Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in Houston, the city where Floyd spent most of his life.

In comparison to New York, daily life in Houston feels markedly different. The restaurants seem entirely normal but for the sparsely placed tables. Diners remove their masks for most of the time they are in the restaurant.

In stores and out in the street, too, adherence to public health advice appears to be laxer. The proportion of people wearing masks appears to be much lower, and local newspapers have documented numerous confrontations over mask use in public.

While New York governor Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order mandating the use of face masks in public when people were unable to social distance, Texas refused to do the same, offering only a recommendation that people do so.

Some areas of the state are seeing higher spikes than others. In other states, local authorities have been given permission to implement their own guidance and lockdown measures. In Texas, governor Abbott’s order specifically blocks them from doing that.

Mr Abbott closed out his conference with a plea for greater care from Texans in stopping the spread of the virus.

“The more that Texans protect their own health, the safer our state will be and the more we will be able to open up Texas,” he said.