2 US states lift mask mandate and business restrictions, sparking concerns from health professionals

TEXAS/MISSISSIPPI — The US states of Texas and Mississippi both announced the lifting of mask mandates and other Covid-19 restrictions on Tuesday (March 2), sparking concerns from health professionals as officials across the country, seeing a sharp decline in coronavirus infections and hospitalisations, begin to ease the unprecedented lockdowns put in place a year ago.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued the most sweeping rollback of any state, lifting a mask mandate and saying most businesses may open at full capacity next week.

The governor said he was able to lift the restrictions because Texas, the third most-populous US state, had administered nearly 5.7 million vaccine shots to its 29 million residents.

"It is now time to open Texas 100%," Mr Abbott, a first-term Republican, told a news conference. He said the order would take full effect on March 10.

Meanwhile, Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves took to Twitter to announce the lifting of mask mandates, which takes effect on Wednesday.

“We are lifting all of our county mask mandates and businesses will be able to operate at full capacity without any state-imposed rules. Our hospitalisations and case numbers have plummeted, and the vaccine is being rapidly distributed. It is time!”

In Chicago, tens of thousands of children returned to public school this week, while snow-covered parks and playgrounds around the city that had been shuttered since last March were opened.

Restaurants in Massachusetts were allowed to operate without capacity limits, and South Carolina erased its limits on large gatherings. San Francisco announced that indoor dining, museums, movie theatres and gyms could reopen on a limited basis.

The states’ move to lift restrictions come despite a warning by Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, against the relaxing of Covid-19 measures.

"I am really worried about reports that more states are rolling back the exact public health measures we have recommended to protect people from Covid-19," Dr Walensky said on Monday.

"I remain deeply concerned about a potential shift in the trajectory of the pandemic," she said.

"Now is not the time to relax the critical safeguards that we know can stop the spread of Covid-19. Continue wearing your well-fitted mask and taking the other public health prevention actions that we know work." 

Dr Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Centre for Health Security, said that there are signs that the country may be through the worst of the pandemic.

But she is still worried that states are reopening too hastily, repeating the same mistakes made in earlier periods of the pandemic when loosened restrictions were followed by new spikes in cases.

“Rather than opening a few lower-risk things and seeing just to make sure it doesn’t change the numbers, it just feels like they’re just kind of opening the floodgates,” Dr Nuzzo told The New York Times.

In remarks at the White House on efforts to step up vaccine production, US President Joe Biden urged Americans to continue wearing face protection.

"Now is not the time to let up," he said. "I've asked the country to wear masks for my first 100 days in office. Now is not the time to let our guard down. People's lives are at stake."

Referring to Mr Abbott's order on masks, White House Covid-19 adviser Andy Slavitt told CNN: "I hope the governor rethinks this. It's only a small piece of cloth that's needed. I don't think it affects the economy of the state."

As of Tuesday, 35 US states, along with the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, still mandate that residents wear face masks in public.

More than 51 million Americans, or 15 per cent of the total US population, have been given at least one vaccine dose, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Mr Biden said on Tuesday that through an agreement for Merck & Co to help make rival Johnson & Johnson's Covid-19 vaccine, his administration had secured enough for every adult in the United States to be inoculated by the end of May.

Covid-19 infections have plummeted in recent weeks across much of the world, including the United States.

According to a Reuters tally, roughly 68,240 new cases have been reported on average each day this week, or 27 per cent of the peak daily average reached on Jan 7.

The United States has recorded 28,681,793 infections and 513,721 coronavirus-related deaths since the pandemic began. AGENCIES