Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued Thursday an executive order, requiring residents to wear face masks in public as coronavirus cases rocket in the state.
The directive applies to counties with 20 or more positive coronavirus cases, which covers most of Texas' 254 counties.
The order also gives local law enforcement officers the ability to limit gatherings of more than 10 people. Texas has seen a surge of hospital admissions in recent days, hitting a record high of more than 8,000 virus cases in a single day on Wednesday.
"Wearing a face covering in public is proven to be one of the most effective ways to slow the spread of #COVID19 while continuing to keep Texas businesses open," Abbott said in a statement on Twitter.
He added: "Texans should wear a face covering for the health of their families, friends, and for all fellow Texans."
After a verbal or written warning, anyone who violates the order cannot be "detain, arrest, or confine in jail", however, they can face fines up to $250.
More about Coronavirus
The novel coronavirus was first reported in Wuhan, China, and has infected more than one million people and killed over 234,139 worldwide. It also hit several celebrities and top political figures around the world.
The virus is a new member of the Coronaviruses group, which was never identified in humans. The viruses’ family also includes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV), which cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases.
Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted between animals and people. Humans and animals such as mammals and birds can be affected by the disease.
The name coronavirus is derived from the Latin corona, meaning “crown” or “halo”.
On February 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the official name for the disease caused by the new coronavirus is Covid-19, taken from the words “corona”, “virus” and “disease”.
In December 2019, an outbreak was reported in Wuhan, China. On 31 December 2019, the outbreak was traced to a novel strain of coronavirus, which was given the interim name 2019-nCoV by the World Health Organization (WHO), it was later renamed SARS-CoV-2 by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses.
On March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared coronavirus a global pandemic as the new virus has rapidly spread to more than 800,000 people from Asia to the Middle East, Europe, and the United States.
However, it announced the novel COVID-19 is still “controllable”.
“We are very concerned to achieve the alarming levels of the outbreak and its severity, as well as the alarming levels of inaction,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference in Geneva.
“Now, COVID-19 can be categorized as a pandemic… we have never seen a pandemic spread due to the coronavirus,” Adhanom added.
“Describing the situation as a pandemic does not change the assessment of the threat posed by the Coronavirus,” the WHO director-general stressed.
Transmission of viruses between humans happens when someone comes into contact with an infected person’s secretions, such as droplets in a cough.
Coronavirus can also be transmitted by coming into contact with something an infected person has touched and then touching your mouth, nose, or eyes.
It is known that older people appear to be more vulnerable to the effects of the emerging virus.
The virus caused complete paralysis in all activities and events with large gatherings worldwide due to concerns over the spread of the virus.
The global pandemic, like everyone around the globe, had infected many famous personalities who have gone public with their results, such as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s wife Sophie, and the Universal Music chairman and CEO Lucian Graingem who was admitted into the hospital to be treated for the virus.
People across the globe partake in self-isolation for 14 days as an effective precautionary measure to protect those around them and themselves from contracting COVID-19.
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