Texas Governor Greg Abbott started reopening state restaurants, movie theaters, malls and more beginning on May 1. He thinks that we can both kickstart the economy and continue to be healthy in our everyday lives.

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins wants to “follow the science and stay home.” He thinks Dallas County has been able to fend off a stronger surge in COVID-19 deaths because bold stay at home measures were enacted. Both politicians have valid arguments so it’s OK to come away feeling a bit confused with the back and forth.

Here in Coppell, our strong community action helped us maintain a lower than average mortality rate.

As of May 14, the number of people with  COVID-19 has risen in Dallas County to more than 6,600 cases and  are confirm 153 have died. And the total number of cases in Texas itself is 44,000. Testing continues to increase so we can expect these numbers to, unfortunately, continue to rise.

Put Even though the fatality rate in Texas is low, the higher the number of confirmed cases gets, the longer we may have to stay in quarantine since we are beginning to experience a surge.

Governors across the United States are trying to decide the best time to begin to relax stay-at-home and essential business orders. For example, beaches in Florida are being reopened. California has decided to keep beaches closed as they feel a large visitor population may create community surges.  As a state similar in size to Texas, California has more cases, which worries me because I have a lot of family over there. I hope that we can blend both Governor Abbott and Judge Jenkins ideas and use our best judgement so that we can avoid a stronger surge in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

I’d like to eventually go back to school and I hope that my younger sisters will be able to experience their first days in fall. It is beginning to feel like a dystopian sci-fi book or movie film because we’ve gotten to the point where American citizens are protesting because they can’t get their hair or nails done, can’t go to the movies, parks, beaches, restaurants and more.

People are dying to COVID-19 every day, and it is sad just thinking about it. It has also gotten worse since March. It’s also sad, knowing that 2020 started up, this way. As a Coppell High School sophomore, I don’t like the feeling of staying home without the social interaction that high school traditionally brings. But I’m also a bit of a homebody when it comes to reading and movies. I’ve learned to cope by looking at everyday as a chance to have family time as we pause our everyday back and forth. I’m also having fun spending time with my young sisters and I have more time to walk my dogs more than once a day.

I can definitely tell that our dogs love the fact that we’re staying home more. I miss my friends, since I haven’t been with them in person since my birthday so I’ll have to find more ways to communicate beyond Zoom and text messages. While strange days are at hand, let’s try to stay safe and healthy until this ends.

Be kind to your neighbors, wash hands frequently, go out when you really need to, and stay six feet away from everyone when outside. If we stay in this together, we can hopefully turn this tide and see each other again soon.

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