Amarillo Businesses Ordered To 50% Capacity, Have You Noticed?

COVID-19 doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon, over the weekend Governor Abbott instructed that with a more than 15 percent hospitalized rate of COVID-19 patients to revert to the limited capacity of 50 percent. It doesn't appear to be enforced at many places I witnessed over the weekend.

This order labeled Executive Order GA-32 requires all restaurants, gyms, exercise facilities, retail stores, office buildings, manufacturing plants, classes, museums and libraries to operate at a 50 percent maximum until further notice. These businesses were allowed to operate at 75 percent until October 25.

Hospitals and dentists have been ordered to discontinue elective surgeries.

Stocks today posted their worst day since early September amid a surge in coronavirus cases in the United States and Europe and declining optimism about another U.S. pandemic relief bill.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day down 650 points, or 2.3%, posting its biggest decline since Sept. 3.

On Sunday, El Paso County hit record numbers of hospitalized COVID-19 patients including patients on ventilators, following a 300% jump in hospitalized COVID-19 patients in just the past three weeks. The largest spike in Texas to date.

Potter and Randall County recorded an increase of 329 COVID-19 cases just on Friday. That number is expected to rise when Tuesday’s report card is released. The DSHS reported a hospitalization rate of 18.99 percent Monday, a decrease from Sunday's rate of 19.62 percent indicated on the report card, marking the ninth straight day that the trauma service area has been above the 15 percent threshold.

Potter County saw an increase of 163 total cases of COVID-19 from Friday, bringing the county's total to 7,845 cases since the start of the pandemic.  An increase of 166 cases brought Randall County's total to 5,049 cases.