Covid-19 latest updates: Texas governor faces legal challenges on mask mandate ban as hospitalizations soar - The Washington Post

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s order banning mask mandates is facing mounting resistance from local officials as soaring coronavirus-related hospitalizations in the state send health-care systems into crisis mode.

Officials in San Antonio and Bexar County, Tex., filed a lawsuit Tuesday morning seeking to halt the Republican governor’s directive, which bars local governments from issuing mask requirements. They’re asking for a temporary restraining order so they can mandate masks in public schools and require unvaccinated students to quarantine if they were exposed to someone with covid-19.

“As the school year begins, the health of our students, especially those under 12 who are not eligible to be vaccinated, are being put at risk,” Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said in a statement. “We have come too far to allow our students to be super spreaders.”

Here are some significant developments:

• More than 2.5 million people have now signed up for health insurance during a special enrollment period launched by the federal government in February in response to the pandemic, Vice President Harris plans to announce during a visit Tuesday morning to a community health center in Washington. Harris will also encourage people to enroll before the special period ends on Sunday, according to her office.
• Thousands of Germans are set to be revaccinated after a nurse admitted injecting patients with saline solution instead of inoculating them against coronavirus, authorities said on Tuesday. The nurse had initially admitted to giving shots of saline solution to six patients after suspicions were first raised in April, but health officials say more than 8,500 may have received bogus shots. Police said the woman, who worked with the Red Cross, had shared posts on social media that were skeptical of vaccines.
• In southern Russia, nine severely ill covid-19 patients on ventilation in a hospital in Vladikavkaz have died after an underground oxygen line ruptured Monday evening, local authorities told Russian media. Russia’s Investigative Committee said it was investigating a possible criminal case, while health authorities said they were also looking into the matter.
• Southeast Asian countries including Indonesia and Thailand are turning away from the Chinese-made Sinovac coronavirus vaccine in favor of Western alternatives, as they scramble to contain deadly outbreaks caused by the delta variant. Last month, Malaysia’s Health Ministry said it would phase out the Sinovac vaccine once its supplies end.
• Long delays and lines were seen at the Canadian border after the country opened to fully vaccinated Americans on Monday, after a 16-month closure. A rush of travelers and tourists caused delays for several hours at the crossings by Fort Frances, Ontario, and International Falls, Minn.
• Celebrities including Ed Sheeran, Annie Lennox and Mick Jagger will join Bollywood stars and other to raise funds for coronavirus relief work in India, the BBC reported. The virtual fundraising event “We For India: Saving Lives” will take place on Sunday, Aug. 15 in both London and Mumbai.
• Singapore has fully vaccinated 70 percent of its population, with 79 percent having received at least one dose, the city-state said. The high rate of vaccinations, among the best in the world, has led Singapore to ease some restrictions, such as allowing dining in restaurants to resume.

The lawsuit from San Antonio and Bexar comes less than a day after Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins filed a similar challenge. Jenkins, a Democrat and elected official, said Monday evening he had asked a court to declare the governor lacks the legal authority to impose the mask mandate ban.

“This is about ensuring there’s adequate medical resources and hospital bed capacity to take care of people with [coronavirus] and any other condition that requires medical care or hospitalization,” Jenkins tweeted.

A children’s advocacy group also filed a lawsuit challenging Abbott’s order on Sunday.

A representative for Abbott did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Hospitalizations across the United States have soared past the peak seen in last summer’s Sun Belt surge, straining resources in Texas and other hotspot states that have resisted renewing pandemic public health measures. Current hospitalizations for the virus passed 68,000 nationwide on Monday — well over last summer’s high of about 66,000 — as daily new admissions approached 15,000.

Florida and Louisiana reported hospitalizations at all-time records this week. In Arkansas, Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) said Monday that just eight ICU beds were open statewide and that the state had registered its largest single-day increase in hospitalizations.

In Texas, where the latest state data shows nearly 9,500 people are currently hospitalized with covid-19, Abbott announced that out-of-state health-care workers would come to assist. Intensive care units in Houston resemble a “war zone,” a doctor there told the local ABC affiliate. One of the city’s hospital systems is preparing huge tents to treat an overflow of patients, according to CNN.

The Harris Health System in Houston, which is installing the tents, said that 1 in 4 patients at its two hospitals had tested positive for the coronavirus. The region including Austin has just six ICU beds for a population of nearly 2.4 million, state data showed. The area including Dallas had just 100 ICU beds available for a population of more than 8 million.

A flurry of warnings came from other medical establishments in the state. The chief executive of the sprawling Texas Medical Center in Houston said hospitalizations are spiking at a pace not seen in a year, while the region faces a shortage of nurses. An “urgently hiring” health system in Greenville, Tex., Hunt Regional Healthcare, temporarily closed one of its emergency medical centers citing a “CRITICAL COVID SURGE.”

Abbott said his request for hospitals to voluntarily scale back procedures “for which a delay will not result in loss of life or the deterioration of a patient’s condition” is meant to ensure that the state’s hospitals and residents “have the resources and support they need to mitigate the virus.”

It’s a retreat to the measures Abbott and other governors took in the early months of the pandemic, before coronavirus vaccines were widely available. In June 2020, Abbott ordered a similar stop on non-emergency procedures amid an increase in cases.

Catherine O’Neal, a hospital chief medical officer in Baton Rouge, encouraged citizens on Aug. 2 to get vaccinated. (Office of Gov. John Bel Edwards)

In a rebuke of the ban, the Dallas Independent School District will require, starting Tuesday, that all students and staff wear masks in school buildings. Announcing the decision on Monday, Superintendent Michael Hinojosa said that “with numbers getting significantly worse, this decision is urgent.”

Even as emergency rooms have swelled with patients, some Republican lawmakers continued to denounce public health requirements aimed at slowing the virus spread. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) told Fox News there should be “zero” mask or vaccine mandates — a call that came just hours after he and Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) introduced legislation that would ban such directives. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) released a video over the weekend that urged people to resist the regulations implemented by health experts.

Some governors have also doubled down on their opposition to public health mandates. In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said in a statement late Monday that district-level officials who require students to wear masks could be subject to “financial consequences” as millions prepare to head back to school.

Earlier this month, President Biden called out Republican officials — after being asked about Abbott and DeSantis — for blocking efforts he said could curb the virus’s spread. “I say to these governors: Please help. But if you aren’t going to help, at least get out of the way,” he said.

The Biden administration has directed agencies throughout the federal government to devise plans for requiring workers to get vaccinated. Defense officials said Monday that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will require all active service members to get a coronavirus vaccine shot by mid-September, an acknowledgment of the way the virus can wreak chaos in military units.

Some states have made similar moves. Washington state, where infections are rising, said it would require most state employees and all nursing home staff to get vaccinated against the coronavirus by October, Gov. Jay Inslee (D) said Monday.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), however, told Fox News late Monday that he would be introducing bills to ban any vaccine passports or mandates and end mask mandates. “There should be no mandates — zero — concerning covid,” he said.

Just over half the American population is now fully immunized, according to CDC data, but cases are still on the rise. With the onset of delta variant cases, millions of Americans say they feel confused about next steps and overwhelmed by the abundance of new rules, research and data they need to absorb.

This follows a study published this week that shows the number of U.S. adolescents and young adults who screened positive for depression and suicide risk increased during the pandemic. School closures, disruption to routines and social isolation were among the main concerns, according to health experts at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

John Wagner, Loveday Morris and Robyn Dixon contributed to this report.

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