San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Protests erupt over curfew
Restrictions target city’s virus cases nearing 80,000 and climbing
More than 100 protesters were in front of the Alamo near midnight Friday, many without face masks and waving flags supporting President Donald Trump, defying the curfew ordered byMayor Ron Nirenberg and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff.
And more were expected Saturday night.
The curfew is designed to help slow the spread of COVID-19 as new cases of the coronavirus in Bexar County continue a steady climb. San Antonio Metropolitan Health District reported 629 newcases Saturday, pushing the total to 78,411.
The newdirective prohibits social gatherings of people not from the same household each night between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. until Monday morning. This mainly applies to bars and restaurants, which must stop all sit-down service by 10 p.m., inside and on patios, but also affects those hosting parties at home with more than 10 people.
Violators face fines up to $1,000.
“It’s a difficult thing to do, but we’ve got to get through this holiday,” Wolff said when the order was announced Wednesday. “If we don’t get through this holiday, we’re in for a very difficult time in San Antonio.”
But some feel the curfew is an infringement on their rights and called for civil disobdience, organizing a large gathering in public to protest the order.
The protest set for Saturday nightwas organized by This Is Texas Freedom Force, which has previously protested mask requirements. The group is “committed to protecting and preserving Texas history and Texan’s rights,” according to its website.
“If the silent majority stays silent, our rights will continue to be eroded,” the group posted to Twitter when announcing the protest for 10:30 p.m. Saturday.
Two nights into the curfew, city officials have issued one citation and no warnings.
The citation was issued to Ojos Locos Cantina around 10:40 p.m. Friday for not posting required signage, according to city enforcement records. Officers conducted a proactive inspection at the Northwest Side restaurant
and saw the restaurant was closing and had no customers were inside.
Officers inspected 83 locations for possible violations Friday, 33 coming fromcalls reporting possible violations and the remainder were investigations by officerswho spotted possible violations.
Of the 33 calls, 21 were for face masks, but the team issued no warnings or citations for those calls.
Metro Health’s report of 629 new coronavirus cases Saturday was a significant jump from Friday’s 220 cases. Thursday saw 812 new cases.
The city took a break from holding daily coronavirus briefings Thursday and Friday for the Thanksgiving holiday, so those figures were just reported Saturday.
The seven-day rolling average of new cases decreased slightly since
Wednesday from
728.
“COVID-19 continues to spread across our community, and we must all work together to slow the spread,” Nirenberg said Saturday. “We must stay disciplined and follow safety guidelines to avoid overloading our hospitals.”
The city also reported one death over the past three days, a man in his 70s, bringing the area’s death toll to 1,344 Saturday. No other information about him was immediately available.
Local hospitals were treating 548 coronavirus patients Saturday, 66 of those being new admissions. Of those, 172 patients were in intensive care and 92 were using ventilators to breathe. Seventy-six of the coronavirus patients Saturday were transferred from El Paso where the border town’s hospitals continue to struggle under a heavy surge of cases.
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