Restaurants in Bexar County may have to rollback capacity next week

SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) – Local health officials and restaurant owners are closely monitoring the COVID-19 hospitalization numbers as they get closer to the point of requiring certain establishments to rollback capacity.

Under Governor Greg Abbott’s plan, seven days of coronavirus hospitalizations over 15 percent would trigger a reduction of maximum restaurant occupancy from 75 percent to 50 percent.

“That could be facing us come Monday,” said Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff.

At that point, the state would send a letter to local health officials informing them about the requirement for restaurants to rollback capacity.

“The governor has had it within his authority to open and close businesses,” said Mayor Ron Nirenberg at Wednesday evening’s COVID-19 briefing.  We have not had that authority since late April.”

Nirenberg reported 1, 629 new coronavirus cases Wednesday, with 945 being treated at local hospitals.   Of those, 290 were in ICU and 152 were on ventilators.

Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff warns that if the current trends continue, hospitals could start running low on staffed hospital beds.

“We may very well spike as high as 1,700 and that’s going to stretch us way beyond what we faced in the summer,” said Wolff.