Threshold hit

COVID-19 patients occupied more than 15 percent of Houston-area beds for the seventh consecutive day Tuesday, a threshold that triggers tighter restrictions on businesses and hospitals. That means restaurant occupancy must drop from75 percent to 50 percent; bars that haven’t reclassified as restaurants must close immediately; and hospitals must not perform non-urgent elective procedures that might deplete resources needed to treat COVID-19 patients. Eighteen of the state’s 22 trauma regions have now hit the 15 percent threshold.