Updated at 7:30 p.m.: This has been updated to reflect the latest date for shelter-at-home orders in Dallas County. Officials this morning had extended a disaster declaration, including stay-at-home orders, until May 20. County Judge Clay Jenkins now says shelter-in-place will remain until April 30.
Hours after Dallas County Commissioners extended a disaster declaration until May 20, the county’s top elected official announced on Twitter that the so-called “safer-at-home” orders would continue until April 30.
The late-afternoon tweet was a shift after County Judge Clay Jenkins and other health officials stressed Friday that the strict restrictions that the county first established last month, and that were also adopted by other large counties, would be needed for at least 60 days to stop the spread of the coronavirus and the disease it causes, COVID-19.
Jenkins did not immediately return a request for comment Friday evening.
A spokeswoman said Jenkins wanted Dallas County’s restrictions on movement to align with Gov. Greg Abbott’s order, which is set to end April 30. Because the state has largely adopted the rules first put in place by Dallas County, the commissioners’ 4-1 vote changes little for the public. Residents who don’t work an “essential” job must continue to stay home except to shop for groceries, visit the doctor or pick up medicine.
Based on the extension of the Declaration of Disaster granted today, I am extending the Dallas County Safer at Home Order to April 30. The Declaration of Disaster is necessary to provide the tools to lead you through this. The Safer at Home Orders are the rules we ask of you.
— Clay Jenkins (@JudgeClayJ) April 3, 2020
Jenkins signaled in subsequent tweets Friday that he would reconsider how long to extend the stay-at-home order near the end of the month. At any point between now and May 20, he can amend the rules — strengthening or relaxing them.
However, Republican Commissioner J.J. Koch, who voted to extend Jenkins’ powers through May, told The Dallas Morning News after Jenkins’ surprising announcement that he would press Jenkins to consult the entire five-member Commissioners Court before extending the restrictions again.
“We’re going to have a very clear idea about how much longer we’re going to need to do things on April 30,” Koch said.
Koch also plans to ask the court when it meets Tuesday to limit any new restrictions on businesses and to forbid Jenkins from issuing a curfew.
The decision Friday to extend Jenkins’ authority to manage the coronavirus crisis came after a tense two-hour special meeting punctuated by debates over hospital readiness, the cost of the pandemic and how to help the region’s most vulnerable.
During the meeting, Dr. Phil Huang, director of the county’s health department, and hospital CEOs told commissioners before their vote that extending the stay-at-home order until May 20 would give the region its best shot to manage hospital beds.
That date — about two months after the county put in place its hardened rules — is a key assumption in a new model from doctors at Medical City that was presented to the commissioners Friday.
“If we continue, the burden on hospitals would be manageable,” Huang said.
Officials are studying various models that estimate how many people will contract COVID-19 and how many will need hospitalization. However, most, including the Medical City model, suggest that Dallas will see a surge in new cases and hospitalizations at the end of April and in early May.
Friday’s vote came 24 days after the county announced its first confirmed case of COVID-19, in an out-of-state traveler who has since recovered. Since then, the county has recorded an additional 920 confirmed cases. Seventeen people have died from complications with the disease.
Dallas County has the second-highest number of known cases in the state. Harris County had 955 on Friday.
While most infected people experience only minor symptoms such as a dry cough and short-lived fever, cases can be severe. Around the world, the virus has sent hundreds of thousands of people to hospitals. In some U.S. cities and some overseas countries, hospitals have become overwhelmed with people needing critical attention.
The coronavirus crisis has brought the world’s economy to a near standstill — thousands of Texans have filed for unemployment benefits. And elected officials have had to weigh the public health needs against the economy.
Commissioner John Wiley Price, a Democrat, was the sole “no” on the vote to extend the disaster declaration. He said he opposed it because the restrictions were “choking” his constituents. Price represents most of southern Dallas, long a center of the region’s poverty.
“Sixty days will decimate my community," Price said, referring to the possible total length of the stay-at-home order.
Price urged Jenkins to open up pawnshops so people can get needed cash.
“An Xbox will feed a family for a couple of days,” he said, adding later, “I have to get some relief for my community.”
Jenkins — who has expressed empathy for out-of-work Texans nearly every day at his news conferences and in public statements — wouldn’t budge.
“We are working with the health care community and the business community to put together the best way to save as many lives as possible,” he said, rebuffing Price and other commissioners who suggested tweaks to the order, albeit not as forcefully as Price. “We have to back our health care heroes.”
Commissioners were told Friday that officials are confident in the number of hospital beds available in Dallas-Fort Worth so long as the spread of the virus does not accelerate. Most hospitals are preparing to increase the number of beds by putting two patients in each room. However, hospital leaders said supplies could run low even if the spread is mitigated.
Commissioners told Jenkins they wanted precise numbers by Tuesday on hospital rooms, staff and personal protectiive equipment.
