Health official: ‘We’re at a really fragile time’

Gov. Greg Abbott announced Tuesday that he was lifting all COVID-19 restrictions, including mask requirements and capacity limits for restaurants, stores and other businesses. The move stunned San Antonio officials, who called it premature and dangerous.

We talked to Dr. Junda Woo, medical director of the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District, about the governor’s order, which goes in effect March 10. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

No. I think it’s a fragile time. It’s a scary time. We’re right on the cusp of beating down this pandemic. We’re on the other side of the curve, but … No. 1, there are new variants, and we know that the vaccines that we have are less effective against some of the new variants, which have all been found already in Houston.

We have spring break coming up. We have not yet vaccinated even 10 percent of our county’s population. And our goal is to vaccinate at least 70 percent. Some people would say 80 or 90 percent before we can resume more normal day-to-day activities. So it’s not the right time yet. Even though everyone is tired, we can’t let up yet. not safe yet.

I don’t know that we’re going to be able to do that. I think we’re going to have to rely upon businesses to do that. They still can voluntarily.

I worry. You know, we’ve already lost a lot of people from San Antonio to this virus, and we’re at a really fragile time and this could definitely get us into another wave that is sooner or larger than we would like. I don’t think it’s realistic to have ever thought that we wouldn’t have another wave. We were always going to have another wave. The question was how big it would be.

Typically, they get smaller over time as more people are vaccinated, as more people have natural immunity. So this just makes that next wave seem a little closer, but I don’t want to be all doom and gloom. I know that we’ve got a really good culture of masking in San Antonio, and we’re going to do everything we can to remind people that that’s still good advice.