AUSTIN — Gov. Greg Abbott announced on Monday the immediate reopening of daycare centers and said that bars and other entertainment venues will be able to partially reopen by the end of the week, when restaurants can also begin allowing more customers inside.

With bars opening at 25% capacity, restaurants may move to 50% capacity. Besides bars, bingo parlors, bowling alleys, rodeos and aquariums also can open on Friday.

By May 31, Abbott said youth sports and overnight camps can resume, along with professional sports (without fans). And by June, summer school can resume at public and private schools, including at universities.

The announcement is the latest in Texas’ march to reopen the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic. While the state has seen an uptick in new COVID-19 cases since the reopening began on May 1, Abbott pointed to metrics that he said show the state is containing spread of the virus.

Hospitalizations remain steady. And as testing across Texas has increased in recent weeks, the percentage of tests coming back positive has continued to drop, he said.

“We are getting through this, but now more than ever we need to work together as one Texas," Abbott said of the Phase II reopening. “Be a good neighbor.”

During his news conference, Abbott was asked about a news report that the state was including tests that determine whether a person has antibodies for COVID-19 in the tracking of testing for live cases. Experts told the Texas Observer including such tests could muddy the state's data on testing and give the public a distorted view of the virus' spread.

"The answer is no," Abbott said. "They're not commingling those numbers. Those numbers will be provided separately."

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said he wants the county’s public heath committee to review Abbott’s recommendations. “I am forwarding the Governor’s latest orders to the public health committee for their comments and inclusion in Dallas County COVID-19 Health Guidance for the Public. Most people are interested in knowing not only what’s legal but what is safe. Public health experts, epidemiologists and infectious disease specialists have trained their entire adult life to tell us just that and I’ll await their response."

But State Rep. Chris Turner of Grand Prairie said the state health department told his staff after the news conference that the state is lumping those numbers together. A state health department spokesman said the agency plans to be able to separate those numbers this week.

Turner, who leads the House Democratic Caucus, said lumping the two numbers together was "unacceptable."

“This calls into question not only how many tests have really been administered but also the positivity rate the governor likes to cite,” Turner said in a statement. “It’s hard to have confidence in the governor’s plan if the data is flawed.”

The latest round of reopenings will come one week later in areas around El Paso and Amarillo, which have experienced recent outbreaks of COVID-19. The four counties that include and surround Amarillo are dealing with a huge spike in cases in the meatpacking industry. El Paso has also seen a big increase in cases, which prompted local leaders to recently ask Abbott for an exemption from the next round of reopening.

One sector that Abbott said cannot open yet is theme parks, which he said face unique challenges.

Pressure to reopen

Abbott’s announcement comes amid growing pressure from business owners and Republicans to let more industries reopen, as unemployment numbers in Texas have soared. Some bars and tattoo parlors had already began letting customers back in, despite Abbott’s order they stay closed until Friday. Meanwhile, Dallas salon owner Shelley Luther has used her spotlight, being jailed for refusing to close her business, to rally for reopening the state.

The National Federation of Independent Business applauded Abbott’s move, saying it shows the first round of reopening were a success. Since May 1, stores, malls, restaurants, movie theaters, museums and libraries have been allowed to operate at 25% of their usual capacity. Hair salons, barber shops and swimming pools followed on May 8, with gyms and office buildings allowed to partially reopen Monday.

“By allowing more businesses to reopen, the governor is going to make a tremendous difference in the lives of small business owners, their employees, and their customers," NFIB State Director Annie Spilman said in a statement.

Democrats, however, warned reopening more businesses at this time is not safe since the state has not met its own goals for testing or contact tracing.

“We all want our economy running again," said Gilberto Hinojosa, chairman of the Texas Democratic Party. "We understand how difficult it is for folks when they work because of this crisis. But we need to do this when it’s safe. If it is not safe to reopen then we risk a boomerang effect.”

Texas has ramped up testing capabilities, but is still not consistently meeting Abbott’s goal of running 30,000 tests each day. Over the last week, the state reported an average of roughly 25,600 test results a day.

The state also is not tracking down and notifying the contacts of every person who tests positive for the coronavirus in Texas, a process known as contact tracing. The state will need a workforce of about 4,000 people to do that, roughly double what the state has now, said John Hellerstedt, head of the Department of State Health Services. The web-based application that will help coordinate contact tracing is still being developed, he said.

“Right now we are ramping that up as fast as we can," he said. “But, it’s a fact that we are not able at this point to do tracing on every single positive case.”

If a new outbreak occurs, Abbott said the state is prepared to dispatch so-called surge response teams to provide testing, protective equipment and sanitization services to help contain the virus’s spread. Those teams have already addressed hotspots at nursing homes, jails and meat-packing plants, Abbott said.

“We have seen spikes happen before, we have seen the containment of spikes take place, and so, we know how to do this,” he said.

What would cause pause in openings

Asked what would be the precise trigger for a retrenchment of the reopening, Abbott stressed that Monday’s announcement included no rollbacks of previous openings. There was merely a “pause” for four counties around Amarillo (Randall, Potter, Moore and Deaf Smith) and El Paso County, he said. They cannot go into Phase II – with, for instance, the restaurants allowed to go to 50% capacity – until May 29.

Abbott said numbers of cases – “a meaningful outbreak” – and concerns about hospital capacity in a particular area are what will cause him to hit the brakes.

But he noted that he can restore more hospital beds by again shutting down elective procedures in an area, or using some of the plans for “surge capacities” in various regions laid out by his hospital czar John Zerwas about a month ago.

Outbreaks in Shelby and Panola counties on the Texas-Louisiana border and in Washington County have been contained, he said.

“We’ve seen no evidence, no signs that raise any concerns about the possibility of retrenchment in Texas,” he said.

Abbott allowed several businesses to reopen immediately, while others can begin allowing customers back later this month.

- Effective immediately, daycare centers can reopen, as can massage businesses, tattoo parlors and piercing studios, so long as there is at least 6 feet of social distancing between operating work stations.

- On Friday, restaurants can increase their capacity to 50%. Bars and several entertainment venues, including bowling alleys, bingo halls, skating rinks, rodeos and aquariums,, can reopen at 25% capacity.

- On May 29, zoos can reopen at 25% capacity.

- On May 31, youth camps can reopen. So can professional sports venues - including basketball, baseball, softball, golf, tennis, football, and car racing - so long as there are no in-person spectators.

There are checklists for reopening on the governor’s website, though none of the minimum standards laid out is a requirement. They’re just suggestions. “Public health guidance cannot anticipate every unique situation,” each of the checklists states. Use “common sense and wise judgment,” they urge.

Daycare, schools

The reopening of daycare will be critical in allowing people to go back to work. For the past few weeks, daycare has only been available to first responders, medical staff and workers who were deemed essential.

David Feigen, Early Childhood Policy Associate at Texans Care for Children, called on state leaders to tap federal funds to help keep day care centers afloat, since they may be unable to manage their costs with fewer children coming.

“Without financial support from the state, child care providers simply will not be able to cover the costs of rent, supplies, and salaries,” he said in a statement. “Many child care providers will be forced to permanently shut down their businesses when the Texas economy needs them most.”

It’s not clear whether that step has been taken.

Most school districts in the Dallas/Fort Worth area -- including Dallas ISD -- already decided on holding classes in a virtual-only format for the coming months. Abbott’s ruling allowing summer school starting June 1 probably won’t change many districts’ plans, said Dallas ISD superintendent Michael Hinojosa.

Hinojosa said he’s more interested in guidance for the fall semester, and pressed TEA commissioner Mike Morath during a conference call last week to provide that direction soon. Hinojosa said he’s set a tentative deadline of June 15 for Dallas to start making plans, particularly regarding potential in-person class sizes.

“Until we get the rules, there’s just too much unknown,” he said. “There’s a big difference between 10 students, and 15 and 20.”

As of late Sunday, 47,784 Texans had tested positive for the virus, according to state figures.

Since early March, 1,336 Texans have died at least in part because of COVID-19. Late Sunday, there were 1,551 coronavirus patients in the hospital.

In Dallas County, the cumulative number of confirmed cases during the pandemic was 7,250 as of late Sunday, according to the Department of State Health Services. It lists 170 COVID-related deaths for the county.

Staff writer Corbett Smith in Dallas contributed to this report.