Dear member –
Yesterday Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued an Executive Order (GA-34) lifting the mask mandate in Texas and increasing capacity of all businesses and facilities in the state to 100 percent, effective next Wednesday.
The Chamber commends government at all levels for their challenging job over the last year to balance public safety while working with the Chamber and others to keep our economy afloat. We’re confident no decision was made lightly, and the Chamber is pleased the government overreach is now removed and businesses can operate as they see fit.
While we applaud the Governor’s action, we continue to worry about a potential rise in COVID hospitalizations that could trigger another rollback on area businesses. The Chamber and its leadership continue to encourage all of us to do what we individually feel is appropriate. Our health system is still without ICU capacity and sits at Level 3: High Risk.
We encourage each of our members to enjoy the freedom to operate normally but to do so cautiously by doing what you feel is reasonable and necessary in order to remain free of mandated rollbacks that painfully impact our local economy and community.
In doing so, we look forward to the continued downward trend in both cases and hospitalizations so we can slowly resume normal operations while keeping ourselves and our families safe, and our businesses open and free of government mandated limitations.
Details on Governor Abbott’s order and what it means for your business can be found here.
Let’s continue to control what we can while doing what we do best as a business community.
Onward!
Doug Peters, IOM
President & CEO
Abilene Chamber of Commerce