Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, it has been around since March 2020. After a year of the ongoing disease that does not seem to go away Texas governor Greg Abbott lifts all restrictions including the mask mandate. This grew a lot of controversies and left many questioning if all of this is too soon or is it way overdue.

Texas has had a total of over 2 million confirmed COVID cases with over 46 thousand deaths. This puts Texas second in most COVID cases in the United States, the first being California. This is why concerns about the lifting of all restrictions was a very scary moment because many thought it would raise the number of daily cases again which have been lowering in numbers every day since November. Celina Celaya says, “I do think we may see a spike in cases again without the mask restriction, but it may not be as bad as the earlier spikes we had due to many people finally receiving their vaccines”.  Previously, all businesses were held to only allowing 75% of capacity. This being put in place in September and masks were still being enforced. Abbott’s reasoning behind this reopening was “Too many Texans have been sidelined from employment opportunities. Too many small business owners have struggled to pay their bills. This must end. It is now time to open Texas 100%”. I asked fellow student Allison Mata how she felt about this and said, “Texas is not ready to have restrictions lifted due to the fact that there is still a lot of COVID cases”.  With schools reopening some believe it may lead to the closing of schools again. They have just started reopening and allowing children t go in for in-person class. Samantha Chairez thinks “I don’t think this will affect going back to school. It seems as if though that decision was made a long time ago”.

How Texas will react to the lifts is a mystery and something people are dying to see. The hope is we’re able to maintain this downward spiral of COVID cases and keep our economy open and running.