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AUSTIN, Texas (KTRK) — Gov. Greg Abbott is set to hold a news conference today at noon.
You can watch it live in the video player above or you can see it on other streaming devices, including Roku and Amazon Fire.
The news conference comes one day after Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said the state could start the reopening process this week.
Right now, restaurants in Texas can only host 50% capacity, but Patrick told Eyewitness News on Tuesday that an announcement from the governor could change this.
“If the governor announces this week they’re going to 75%, I’m in total support,” Patrick explained. “I think there’s no reason they can’t be.”
It’s a news conference we’ve waited for since Abbott put out a tweet two weeks ago.
He said he hoped to discuss the state’s next steps last week, but Patrick said it’s happening this week.
“What we’re talking about is not a dramatic opening of the doors,” Patrick explained. “What we’re saying is, ‘Let’s just expand the openings that we have.'”
There’s concern that the reopening process might be happening too fast.
After the state reopened in May and June, COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and positivity numbers spiked, forcing the governor to close bars, and reduce restaurant capacity.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said the numbers are trending in the right direction, but now isn’t the time to talk about reopening.
“What I want to avoid again is, reopening things just because we’re tired and having to bounce back and forth, which is worse for the kids, the economy and the virus. But I get that it’s tiring,” Hidalgo said.
Harris County’s COVID-19 threat level remains at severe.
Hidalgo said hospitalization numbers are where they need to be, but daily cases are too high, as well as the positivity rate, which is at about 8%.
She worries reopening could make things worse.
SEE ALSO: The reasons a Houston-area county leader gave for full reopening
“People died who didn’t need to die,” Hidalgo said. “A lot of people got sick who didn’t need to get sick, and it set us way back.”
Dr. James McDeavitt with Baylor College of Medicine believes it’s too early to talk reopening.
Right now, there are about 1,000 daily COVID-19 cases in the Houston area.
He said the number needs to drop to 200 in order to reopen.
“A thousand cases a day, that is far too many to do real contact tracing,” McDeavitt explained. “We need to get that down to 200 cases a day or less.”
While more people might be in restaurants soon, that may not be the case for bars.
Patrick told Eyewitness News that the industry might have to wait longer to reopen.
“Bars are still an issue,” Patrick explained. “We’re looking at that, and the governor will speak more to that soon.”