County Judge Lina Hidalgo: Indoor, maskless gatherings should not be taking place right now, and this applies to bars as well

HARRIS COUNTY, TX -- County Judge Lina Hidalgo today issued the following statement:

“Months ago, we established the Harris County Threat Level System - critical public health benchmarks to determine the county’s level of reopening and make way for sustainable, long-term reopenings. We have not been able to enforce the Threat Level System, which has led to a much slower decrease in the virus incidence.

The data guiding county decision-making tells us we are doing much better than we were a few months ago, but we are still at the highest level: red. Indoor, maskless gatherings should not be taking place right now, and this applies to bars, as well.

We are moving in the right direction because of the community coming together and helping contain this virus. We must not let down our guard or we will be right back where we started.

The sooner we can get this virus under control means the sooner we can return to some sense of normalcy and the stronger our local economy will be. We would have gotten there long ago if Harris County had been able to take the aggressive measures we needed to take in April and again in June.”