Restaurant Curfew Issued In Austin Amid Coronavirus

AUSTIN, TX — In an effort to stem the tide of the coronavirus illness, health officials on Tuesday implemented new restrictions regulating hours of operation for dine-in food and beverage service across Travis County over the New Year's weekend.

Starting on Thursday at 10:30 p.m. through Sunday at 6 a.m., dine-in food and beverage service will be restricted by city and county order from 10:30 p.m. to 6 a.m. Venues serving food and drink will still be able to operate between 10:30 p.m. and 6 a.m. using drive-thru, curbside pick-up, take-out or delivery service, according to an Austin Public Health advisory.

The change applies to any venue serving food or drink from an onsite kitchen, food truck or catering service, health officials noted. Between 6 a.m. and 10:30 p.m., venues are permitted to continue dine-in operations, officials added.

View the city and county COVID-19 Orders and Rules page

View city orders here

View county orders here

“The situation is critical,” said Dr. Mark Escott, Interim Austin-Travis County Health Authority, in a prepared statement. “We are asking the public to stay home as much as possible and not gather with people outside their households for New Year's Eve. We are asking people to only go out to restaurants for take away, delivery, or drive through services."

The city's move was attacked early Wednesday by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who wrote on Twitter it runs on afoul of a previous gubernatorial order. "The City of Austin and Travis County orders enacting a four-day shutdown of dine-in food and beverage services violate @GovAbbott's Exec Order GA-32," Paxton wrote. "They must rescind or modify their local orders immediately."

Paxton sent a letter to Austin and Travis County leaders on Wednesday buttressing his stance while threatening legal action from the state if the local order was not rescinded: "Again, you must immediately rescind or, at a minimum, modify your orders to fully comply with GA-32. We are open to conferring with you before 12:30 p.m. today. Otherwise, I, on behalf of the State of Texas, will take legal action against you."

Gov. Greg Abbott later echoed the sentiment on Twitter: "This shutdown order by Austin isn't allowed. Period. My executive order stops cities like Austin from arbitrarily shutting down businesses. The city has a responsibility to enforce existing orders, not make new ones."

In a subsequent news conference detailing the restaurant curfew, Austin Mayor Steve Adler took issue with Abbott's categorization of the municipal move as a "shutdown" that would violate the gubernatorial order. Instead, he noted the local order was merely an alteration of hours designed to mitigate gatherings to thwart illness spread ahead of the holiday period.

Abbott on Oct. 8 issued Executive Order GA-32 to reopen certain venues to 75 percent capacity while allowing elective surgeries to resume in certain counties. Counties located in Trauma Service Areas (TSAs) with high COVID‑19 hospitalizations were excluded from the governor's reopening plan.

Areas with high hospitalizations are defined in the executive order as any Trauma Service Area that has had seven consecutive days in which the number of COVID‑19 hospitalized patients as a percentage of total hospital capacity exceeds 15 percent. A county within a TSA that has high hospitalizations may still reopen up to 75 percent if the county meets attestation parameters established under the executive order, which took effect on Oct. 14.

The city's action altering restaurants' hours of operation comes after the Austin area last Wednesday was placed under Stage 5 alert denoting growing respiratory illness spread — a red-colored advisory that is the highest of five tiers. "We are now experiencing uncontrolled widespread community transmission of COVID-19, particularly in circumstances where masking and distancing are not possible, making bars and similar establishments extremely concerning over this holiday weekend,” Escott said in announcing the four-day restaurant curfew.

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The move also comes one day after Austin Public Health officials warned the region was soon to be placed under a "state of emergency" given uncontrolled spread of the virus. During a news conference, health district officials telegraphed the idea of some sort of curfew without providing details on how that measure might be implemented.

Health officials noted the new orders only apply to businesses that serve food or drink. All other businesses may operate as outlined in other COVID-19 Orders and Rules. Individuals who see a business operating with dine-in service past 10:30 p.m. between Thursday and Sunday should report the violation to Austin 3-1-1, health officials advised.

Violation of this order runs afoul of Austin City Code Section 2-6-24, officials said, and may be punishable through criminal enforcement except as limited by state order. A criminal violation of this order is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine not to exceed $1,000 without confinement, officials added.

Health officials staged a news conference Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. to provide further specifics on the new local order. Adler and Escott were in attendance along with Travis County Judge Andy Brown and Dr. Jordan Weingarten, medical director of the Adult Intensive Care Unit at Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin.

For more information about the respiratory illness, visit the city's COVID-19 Information portal.