Texas Governor Greg Abbott took to Twitter on Monday to send a slightly veiled optimistic message to bar owners in Texas.
His Tweet, that led as if it were an announcement that Texas has turned the corner on the pandemic, cited the State's recent successes in mitigating the spread of the coronavirus. "Texans have continued to keep COVID under control," wrote Abbott. He went on to say, "The hospitalizations, number of new positive cases, and positivity rate remain contained."
These are the same three top statistical categories that Governor Abbott said in August needed to come down dramatically before the state could consider reopening bars. Abbott actually blamed his reopening of bars in late May as one of the reasons the state saw the sharp rise in the COVID cases and the positivity rate. "It was after they were open, we saw an increase in the spread of COVID-19 that led to the necessity of closing them," said Abbott during an August Press Conference. "We have to be vigilant right now to make sure that we continue to slow the spread of COVID-19."
Abbott's Monday Tweet went on to say, "I will be announcing more openings soon. Cheers!" The slightly veiled message to bar owners was specifically found in the "CHEERS" gif with two beer mugs coming together at the bottom.
