ALICE, Texas — Residents in Alice are reacting to the new guidelines that allow certain businesses to open at a 50% occupancy.
Alice residents are out and about today just days after Jim Wells County was given the go-ahead to re-open some businesses.
With only three confirmed COVID-19 cases, and zero deaths the county meets the State’s standards to open businesses at 50 percent capacity compared to corpus Christis 25 percent
It's a factor that community members agree with.
“It's not a big thing to me because I’m still going to practice prevention and wear my mask out in public,” said Patsy Joyceharven.
“Everybody is still keeping their distance, which I don’t blame them,” said Joe Chapa.
Places that can reopen to the public include those that offer:
- Dine-in eating
- Movie theaters
- Museums and libraries
Joyceharven says she’s hopeful this will slowly start to stimulate their local economy.
“We can take care of our own people then we’re in a much better condition,” said Joyceharven.
But these new guidelines would be reverted back to a 25 percent capacity if for any reason the county sees a spike in new cases.
Or, if any of the following occurs:
- Five consecutive testing/tracking intervals with positivity rates greater than 12% in that interval.
- The county has more than three positive cases per 1,000 residents.
- Less than 15% of the surge capacity in hospital for the catchment area is available.