Gov. Abbott Sounds Off Swiftly On the Latest Austin Shutdown

We've focused on how to keep Victoria the safest we could throughout the year, attending our city's Emergency Operations Management meetings LIVE often while still looking to see how to best support our neighboring communities. We've closely followed the recommendations of the CDC guidelines while looking to our leaders for the most updated and educated information.

Just yesterday we received news that Texas had reached a record high in COVID-19 related inpatient care at hospitals.

We've followed Gov. Abbott's advice and thoughts closely as well.

Right before Christmas, Austin had announced it had reached Stage 5 of its coronavirus response, which recommends no gatherings outside of those you live with. The Stage 5 declaration indicated that the average hospital admissions for COVID-19 reached more than 50 new COVID-related patients daily.

This lead to a thread of Tweets speculating that Austin was on lockdown.

Gov. Abbott responded by tweet asking, " Who said Austin is locked down?" 

Now it seems Travis County authorities have issued a curfew order enforcing dine-in service for restaurants and bars in Austin around the New Year's holiday.

"While many Austin-area bars have been permitted to stay open if they are serving food, a new order will prohibit both bars and restaurants from operating dine-in services on nights around the New Year's holiday. Starting on Dec. 31 at 10:30 p.m. and through Jan. 3 at 6 a.m., all dine-in food and beverage services will be restricted from 10:30 p.m. to 6 a.m. This order is being enforced on both the City and Travis County level." reported KHOU-11.

Almost immediately, Gov. Abbott opposed sending a tweet that reads, "This shutdown order by Austin isn't allowed. Period. My executive order stops cities like Austin from arbitrarily shutting down businesses. The city has a responsibility to enforce existing orders, not make new ones."

All eyes are on Austin as we await their response.