Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price, center, with Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley, left, and Arlington Mayor Jeff Williams.
Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price said today (Friday, April 3) that the Fort Worth City Council will meet Tuesday, April 7, and is expected to extend the city’s shelter in place order through April 30, which is line with what the order issued by Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday, April 2 calls for.
Price made the announcement this afternoon during her daily live-streamed COVID-19 update.
Arlington Mayor Jeff Williams — who participated in the briefing with Price and Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley — said the Arlington City Council had already been scheduled to meet Thursday night and, after Abbott announced the extension of a statewide order — which falls short of “shelter in place” and exempts some houses of worship — through the end of April, the Arlington council voted to extend its order through the end of the month, too.
Price said that shelter in place orders issued in the larger (population-wise) counties and cities are all very similar in content and that those orders covered about 70 percent of the state’s population. Abbott has left it up to the discretion of local jurisdictions to issue shelter in place orders.
During the briefing, Price said that as of Friday afternoon, there are 383 known cases of COVID-19 in Tarrant County, and there have been seven deaths, with 23 individuals officially designated as having recovered from the illness. But, she said, the county had “nearly two dozen” new cases recorded over the previous 24 hours, and the number of new infections is expected to continue to rise.
Price noted that Congress, “including your Tarrant County delegation,” has passed the CARES Act providing COVID-19 relief funds. Tarrant County will receive $2.5 million of those funds, while the city of Fort Worth will receive $4.3 million and the city of Arlington will receive $2 million.
Price closed the briefing with what has become her trademark phrase during the epidemic: “Y’all stay safe. Y’all stay healthy. And y’all stay home.”
You can watch video of the briefing — in English and in Spanish — on the City of Fort Worth Facebook Page.
— Tammye Nash
