Expert ‘mortified and disgusted’ by Texas reopening plan; it ‘will kill Texans,’ says top Democrat – MarketWatch

News that the governor of Texas, Republican Greg Abbott, would lift the states face-mask mandate and allow businesses to fully reopen on March 10 was met with a wave of alarm on Wednesday, as health officials warned that the U.S. is not out of the woods, even as the vaccine program looked set to get a needed boost.

Abbott announced the news in a tweet that was immediately greeted with dismay.

Gilberto Hinojosa, chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, said the move was extraordinarily dangerous and will kill Texans.

This will set us back, not move us forward.

Our countrys infectious-disease specialists have warned that we should not put our guard down even as we make progress towards vaccinations. Abbott doesnt care, Hinojosa said in a statement.

[O]pening Texas prematurely will only lead to faster COVID spread, more sickness and overcrowding in our hospitals, and unnecessary deaths. There is no economic recovery without beating the coronavirus pandemic. This will set us back, not move us forward, said the statement.

Texas has the third highest number of deaths after California and New York at 44,353, according to a New York Times Tracker. The Lone Star State has had 2.7 million confirmed cases of COVID since the start of the pandemic, the tracker shows. Just 13% of the states population has received at least one vaccine jab so far, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and just 6.8% of the states population has received two doses.

Dr. Irwin Redlener, a pediatrician who is head of theColumbia University National Center for Disaster Preparedness, said he was mortified and disgusted by the Texas move, which he called completely reckless.

If we dont have consistent policies around mass business openings, school openings, that means that theres going to be hideaways for the virus to start replicating even quicker, and that will spread to other communities that are being more responsible, Redlener told Sirius XM Doctor Radio Reports. So its not only reckless for the citizens of Texas; its reckless for all of us. So that will retard our ability to get this pandemic under control in America.

Dr. Lauren Ancel Meyers, a professor of integrative biology and director of the University of Texas COVID-19 Modeling Consortium, agreed. The fact that things are headed in the right direction doesnt mean we have succeeded in eradicating the risk, she said, as the Associated Press reported.

She said the recentdeadly winter freeze in Texasthat left millions of people without power forcing families to shelter closely with others who still had heat could have amplified transmission of the virus, although it remains too early to tell. Masks, she said, are one of the most effective strategies to curb the spread.

Companies responded to Abbotts move by saying they would continue to require customers and employees to wear face masks. Retailers Target Corp. TGT, +0.07% and Macys Inc. M, +4.14% said they would continue to do so, according to Reuters, while General Motors GM, -2.66% and Toyota TM, -0.25% 7203, -0.61% said they would stick with a face mask mandate for workers, the New York Times reported.

Kroger Co. also responded by saying it will continue to require its shoppers in Texas to wear face masks, as MarketWatchs Tonya Garcia reported.

To ensure the continued safety of our customers and associates, the Kroger Family of Companies will continue to require everyone in our stores across the country to wear masks until all our frontline grocery associates can receive the COVID-19 vaccine, the grocer said in a statement.

See: As governor reopens Texas, HPE says it will remain cautious

Local businesses got in on the act, too.

The news came as the head of the CDC continues to warn that a recent decline in U.S. case numbers has stalled at a level close to 70,000 new cases a day and about 2,000 deaths, as new variants that are far more infectious than the original virus circulate.

Just because were not getting 4,200 fatalities in a day were quote-unquote only getting 2,000 fatalities a day thats still horrible, really horrible, said Redlener. So we should not minimize where we are or somehow say, now were at a place where we can get back to normal. We cannot.

The U.S. continues to lead the world by case numbers and fatalities. With just 4% of the global population, the U.S. accounts for 28.7 million of the global case tally of 114.8 million, or about 25%. It has suffered 517,833 fatalities, or about 20% of the global toll of 2.55 million.

The news overshadowed President Joe Bidens announcement Tuesday that the White House is expecting to take delivery of enough coronavirus vaccine for all adults by the end of May two months earlier than anticipated.

Biden said supply would be greatly boosted by the news that Merck MRK, +0.62% will help produce rival Johnson & Johnsons JNJ, -1.76% newly authorized one-shot vaccine, likening the partnership between the two drug companies to the spirit of national cooperation during World War II.

For more, see: U.S. Covid vaccine supply to be boosted by Merck helping make J&J vaccine

Biden also cautioned against a rush to return to life as it was before the virus hit, echoing the concerns of his governments health experts.

The U.S. government stopped a clinical trial evaluating convalescent plasma as a treatment for people with mild to moderate forms of COVID-19, saying the experimental treatment likely has no benefit to these patients, MarketWatchs Jaimy Lee reported. Convalescent plasma is blood plasma gathered from people who have recovered from COVID-19; that plasma, which carries COVID-19 antibodies, is then given to people who are currently sick to help them recover from the disease. In this particular trial, the plasma was given to patients with at least one comorbidity who came to emergency rooms with mild or moderate symptoms of COVID-19. The NIH said that more than 100,000 people in the U.S. have been treated with convalescent plasma during the pandemic.

Country music legend Dolly Parton received her first shot of Modernas COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday, quipping she got a dose of her own medicine, MarketWatchs Mike Murphy reported. Partondonated $1 million to COVID-19 researchat Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., last year, which in turn helped the development of Modernas coronavirus vaccine. Im so excited. Ive been waiting a while, Parton, 75, said in a video posted Tuesday on social media. Im old enough to get it, and Im smart enough to get it.

A COVID testing center in the Netherlands was hit by an attempted bombing attack early Wednesday, according to Dutch media reports. The blast at a center in the town of Bovenkarspel, about 40 miles north of Amsterdam, blew out windows. The Netherlands has been hit with a wave of protests against a nationwide curfew that was imposed in January amid a wave of new cases.

New York will allow weddings of up to 150 people starting March 15, but with safety rules that include socially distanced dance zones, the Guardian reported. The move comes even as health experts fret about a new variant of the virus that has been uncovered in New York City that is more infectious than the original virus. All attendees must show proof of a negative PCR test within 72 hours of a wedding, or show proof of a negative rapid test within six hours of the event.

Slovakia has become the latest country to impose a curfew in an effort to contain one of the worlds highest mortality rates, AFP reported. Slovaks will be asked to stay home from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m., according to a government decree. The country of 5.4 million has the worlds highest rate of COVID deaths at 24 per 100,000 people, according to an AFP tally. In the neighboring Czech Republic, enforcement is being stepped up to restrict movement by people among the countrys districts.

Japan is considering a two-week extension of a state of emergency in the Tokyo area due to continuing pressure on the medical system from COVID-19 cases, Reuters reported. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will hold an advisory board meeting on Friday to decide on extending the emergency beyond the March 7 deadline. Suga said a shortage of beds in the capital region and a slow decline in infections prompted him to consider the move.

Read now: Money pressures from COVID-19 may finally push hospitals to stop wasting billions of dollars

Almost 65 million people have recovered from COVID-19, the Johns Hopkins data shows.

Brazil has the second highest death toll at 257,361 and is third by cases at 10.6 million.

India is second worldwide in cases with 11.1 million, and fourth in deaths at 157,346.

Mexico has the third highest death toll at 187,187 and 13th highest case tally at 2.1 million.

The U.K. has 4.2 million cases and 123,530 deaths, the highest in Europe and fifth highest in the world.

China,where the virus was first discovered late last year,has had 101,027 confirmed cases and 4,836 deaths, according to its official numbers.

The U.S. private sector added jobs in February at a slower pace than in the prior month, according to theADP National Employment Report released Wednesday.

Private-sector payrolls expanded by 117,000 jobs in February after adding a revised 195,000 in the prior month, MarketWatchs Greg Robb reported. This was a larger job gain in January than the initial estimate of an increase of 174,000.

Economists polled by the Wall Street Journal forecast a gain of 225,000 private sector jobs in February. The ADP report is produced with Moodys Analytics.

Overall, this report left cause for concern as the recovery remains tepid in the labor market, said T.J. Connelly, head of research at Contingent Macro.

Separately, the huge services side of the U.S. economy grew more slowly in February as businesses ran into shortages or delays in obtaining key materials, MarketWatchs Jeffry Bartash reported.

A survey of top business leaders at companies such as banks, hospitals and home builders slipped to a nine-month low of 55.3% last month from a two-year high of 58.7% in January, the Institute for Supply Management said Wednesday.

Readings above 50% signals that businesses are expanding, and numbers above 55% are usually a sign of broad strength.

The Federal Reserve will release its Beige Book report on economic conditions at 2 p.m. Eastern time.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.39% was up early Wednesday, while the S&P 500 SPX, -1.31% was down 0.5%.

More:

Expert 'mortified and disgusted' by Texas reopening plan; it 'will kill Texans,' says top Democrat - MarketWatch