COMAL COUNTY, Texas – Comal County officials announced Monday that the county’s businesses now operating at 75% capacity will have to cut back to 50% capacity and all bars must close due to COVID-19 hospitalizations in the region.
The cutbacks were mandated in Gov. Abbott’s Executive Order GA-32 that went into effect in October. That order allowed certain venues to open up to 75% capacity unless they were located in a Trauma Service Area with seven consecutive days where the number of COVID‑19 hospitalized patients exceeded 15% of the total hospital capacity. County officials said that threshold was met on Sunday.
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Comal County is located in Trauma Service Area P, along with Bexar County. Bexar County officials are expected to announce the new restrictions during the daily 6 p.m. briefing.
In addition to reducing capacity to 50% and bar closures, all elective surgeries are also suspended, effective immediately.
“This pandemic has been extremely challenging for many of our businesses, and these new restrictions are even more difficult,” said Comal County Judge Sherman Krause in a press release. “We hope these limitations help bring the virus under control, and more importantly, are short-lived so our community can get back to supporting our economy.”
These are the dates and percentages affecting TSA P as per the Department of State Health Services:
- Dec. 21- 15.13%
- Dec. 22- 15.67%
- Dec. 23- 16.23%
- Dec. 24- 16.09%
- Dec. 25- 16.39%
- Dec. 26- 16.88%
- Dec. 27- 15.97%
The restrictions will remain in place until the TSA P is below 15% for seven consecutive days.
The following counties are in Trauma Service Area P and are affected by this order:
- Atascosa
- Bandera
- Bexar
- Comal
- Dimmit
- Edwards
- Frio
- Gillespie
- Gonzales
- Guadalupe
- Karnes
- Kendall