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Alice residents react to 50% capacity rule for Jim Wells County businesses

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Residents in Alice are reacting to the new guidelines that allow certain businesses to open at a 50% occupancy.

Alice residents are out and about today just days after Jim Wells County was given the go-ahead to re-open some businesses.

With only three confirmed COVID-19 cases, and zero deaths the county meets the State’s standards to open businesses at 50 percent capacity compared to corpus Christis 25 percent

It's a factor that community members agree with.

“It's not a big thing to me because I’m still going to practice prevention and wear my mask out in public,” said Patsy Joyceharven.

“Everybody is still keeping their distance, which I don’t blame them,” said Joe Chapa.

Places that can reopen to the public include those that offer:

  • Dine-in eating
  • Movie theaters
  • Museums and libraries

Joyceharven says she’s hopeful this will slowly start to stimulate their local economy.

“We can take care of our own people then we’re in a much better condition,” said Joyceharven.

But these new guidelines would be reverted back to a 25 percent capacity if for any reason the county sees a spike in new cases.

Or, if any of the following occurs:

  • Five consecutive testing/tracking intervals with positivity rates greater than 12% in that interval.
  • The county has more than three positive cases per 1,000 residents.
  • Less than 15% of the surge capacity in hospital for the catchment area is available.