JIM WELLS COUNTY, Texas — In Jim Wells County rising COVID-19 positivity rates has the Emergency Management Department ordering a shutdown of all bars and a roll back of restaurant capacity to 50% as per Governor Greg Abbott's statewide order.
Jim Wells County leaders were put on notice this week by the Texas Department of State Health Services that the county no longer meets the requirements for the "opt-in request for bars to reopen".
Jim Wells County Judge Juan Rodriguez told 3 News the notice from the state caught him off guard.
"We haven't had any problems. All of a sudden, we received this letter and it's just one of those things that says that we need to relook at our numbers because we might not be in compliance and we may not be eligible at this time because of the infection rate and the numbers have gone over. That's what we are trying to figure out, which numbers are they talking about," said Judge Rodriguez.
According to the Jim Wells County Emergency Management, the county's COVID positivity rate is now 13.2%.
The positivity rate statewide is just under 12%.
On Monday, Dr. Chris Bird, with the local COVID task force delivered his weekly report showing a graph that illustrated Jim Wells County leading others in our area on new COVID cases per day. Nueces County is not shown on the chart.
Judge Rodriguez believes there needs to be more clarification from the state on the notice.
"Because these guys are just trying to survive here and they are not abusing, they are not doing anything else if anything the infection is coming from Walmart and HEB where people are congregating and showing up in masses," said Rodriguez.
Rodriguez said he understands the frustrations of bar owners and other businesses affected. He said many of them have been in compliance of capacity and social distancing requirements.
"I've spoken to a lot of the bar owners and a lot of the local businesses and they are, so they insist they are complying, and I've seen it myself they go above and beyond as far as the safety protocols go," said Rodriguez.
The judge even questions about whether local law agencies would even be able to enforce the rollback.
"Because like our local law enforcement, with their day-to-day duties and responsibly they are stretched thin," Rodriguez said.
For now, bars will remain closed until the county's numbers fall. Even then, Rodriguez said they would have to remain that way.
"for 14 days we have to stay under a certain percentage of infection rate so we can resubmit that and reopen these bars," said Rodriguez.
RELATED: Coastal Bend Task Force predicting businesses will reduce capacity to 50-percent by January 11
For the latest updates on coronavirus in the Coastal Bend, click here.
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