As cases of coronavirus continued to pop up in North Texas, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson declared a state of emergency after Dallas County officials late Thursday night banned large public gatherings for at least the next week.
Starting at 11 a.m. on Friday and continuing until March 20, public gatherings — whether inside or outdoors — of more than 500 people are prohibited anywhere in the county, County Judge Clay Jenkins said Thursday night. Gatherings of more than 250 people, he said, should be canceled or rescheduled.
There are some exceptions, such as schools, office towers, movie theaters and airports.
The news came as the county reported five more cases of COVID-19. One of the patients had no recent travel history, making it a possible case of community spread.
Among the new cases is a woman in her 70s, one man in his 40s, one man in his 50s, one man in his 60s, and one woman her 60’s. Four are residents of the city of Dallas and one is a resident of Balch Springs. Two cases are related to domestic out-of-state travel and one is related to international travel.
“I know Dallas County is up to the challenge,” Jenkins said. “Use your brains, as we’re all very good at doing in this community. … I want everyone to soberly consider and take responsibility for your life decisions."
(Read Dallas County’s declaration and order limiting large scale events.)
Dr. Phil Huang, director of the Dallas County health department, said the prohibition was meant to slow the spread of the virus, especially to help the health care system keep up.
Among the new cases, two people were hospitalized; three were isolated at home.
City Manager T.C. Broadnax late Thursday sent an email to officials that all city-sponsored events that involve its employees or facilities have been canceled until further notice. All city travel has also been suspended until the end of March. As of Wednesday, the city had more than 120 events planned through August.
Assistant City Managers Joey Zapata and Jon Fortune didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday night. Rocky Vaz, director of emergency management, also didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Dallas City Council members supported the county’s move.
Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Adam McGough said these were “extraordinary times” that require “extraordinary measures.”
“The first priority should always be protecting the health and safety of the people in Dallas," McGough said. “Taking proactive measures to reduce the spread of this virus is a smart decision.”
Council member Lee Kleinman said it doesn’t take much to spread the virus.
“Five or 500, all you have to have is the wrong one person in the room," he said. "But I think the main thing is just like the judge said: Keep distance and hopefully we can slow it down; I think that message is getting pretty clear. There are enough hospital beds as long as we don’t have to use them all at the same time.”
Council member Jennifer Staubach Gates said she supports any proactive decision made by the county and city that would slow the spread of the virus, and called for more transparency on how many cases are active.
“This is going to give the hospitals more time to identify more ways to quarantine patients,” Gates said. “For those of high risk, this is a very serious illness.”
Council member Adam Bazaldua said he supports any precautions local governments can take to combat the outbreak, but is especially concerned about the impact the virus is having on more vulnerable populations and working parents. He said he’d like to see the council take some kind of action that could help reduce the financial burden on those households who will take time off work.
“There’s going to be a significant financial burden on the working-class people that don’t have savings to fall back on through a couple of weeks of no income,” Bazaldua said.
City of Dallas officials said Thursday night that the mayor planned to make his own announcement Friday and that they were working on compiling a list of events and conferences that would need to be notified to cancel.
Jenkins said it was possible for people and business to receive citations if they do not comply with the order. He suggested it wouldn’t come to that.
On Wednesday, the city of Dallas revoked events permits for the St. Patrick’s Day parade and block party, effectively canceling what would have been the 41st year for the East Dallas event that draws more than 125,000 people.
Houses of worship are included in the prohibition. Jenkins said he spoke with faith leaders Thursday and they were supportive of the order and others would be as well.
“It’s a rare situation in times of crisis when the best thing is for people not to come together to comfort one another and pray,” Jenkins said. “But I am confident that we’ll have their full support.”
Dallas County’s declaration came hours after Harris County took the same step to protect residents from the further spread of the respiratory virus.
Also Thursday, many North Texas school districts extended spring break for an extra week to keep students out of school. Allen, Carrollton-Farmers Branch, Cedar Hill, Frisco, Lovejoy, McKinney, Plano, Prosper, Rockwall and Wylie each announced closures for next week.
Jenkins said the order would not apply to schools and other areas that typically have more than 500 people but in separate areas.
Earlier Thursday DISD Superintendent Michael Hinojosa said the district planned to make school closure decisions on a campus-by-campus basis and would do so while working with health officials. DISD officials hope to have updated information for families on March 19.
Other educational institutions, jails and courts were all closing to prevent the further spread of the virus. Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas announced it was limiting patients to one visitor at a time.
Earlier this week, the county announced that an out-of-state 77-year-old man and an acquaintance, as well as an Irving man, all had “presumptive positive” tests for the virus. They were the first to test positive in the county.
Staff writers Robert Wilonsky and Eva-Marie Ayala contributed to this report.
CORRECTION, 8:45 a.m., March 13, 2020: The photo captions in this story have been updated to reflect that Dallas County declared a local state of disaster for public health emergency. It did not declare a state of emergency. Dallas’ mayor did declare a state of emergency.
