Gov. Greg Abbott announced more businesses would be able to reopen starting Monday, including daycares and all personal care businesses, such as massage services, tattoo shops and more.
In addition to daycares being able to open back up immediately, Abbott said other child-oriented businesses will be able to open back up soon, including youth clubs, youth sports, youth day camps and youth overnight camps, zoos, skating rinks and other entertainment venues.
RELATED: Texas daycare facilities can reopen, bars can open at limited capacity Friday, says Gov. Greg Abbott
Read on for a breakdown from the governor's office about how each is trying to keep everything safe.
For full statements, visit https://gov.texas.gov/organization/opentexas.
Youth Clubs - opening immediately
Youth Clubs, such as Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, TOP Teens (of TOP Ladies of Distinction), FFA, and Girls Inc., may hold meetings. Meetings held indoors should not exceed more than 10 individuals at any time, provided 6 feet of distance between individuals is maintained; staggering meetings to comply with the 10 individual limit is encouraged.
Youth Sports - opening May 31
Parents should monitor the health of their children and not send them to participate in sporting activities if they exhibit any symptoms of COVID-19. They should seek COVID-19 testing promptly and report results to the program given the implications for other children, families, and staff. Individuals aged 65 or older are at a higher risk of COVID-19. Parents should protect any vulnerable persons who are members of the same household or come into frequent, close contact with individuals who participate in youth sports.
Below are some of the health protocols employees, contractors and volunteers must follow:
- Provide notice to all parents and guardians of the enhanced risks of participants being in direct contact with anyone age 65 or older for 14 days after participating in a sport event or practice.
- Train all staff on appropriate cleaning and disinfection, hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette.
- Screen all staff each day for any new or worsening signs or symptoms of possible COVID-19 infection.
- Limit staff with underlying conditions from attending or staffing the youth sporting event.
- Consider having all staff wear cloth face coverings (over the nose and mouth). If available, staff should consider wearing nonmedical grade face masks.
- Staff should mitigate environmental exposures by additional cleaning and disinfecting of symptomatic staff’s work area, common areas, and bathrooms.
- Isolate staff and participants exhibiting new or worsening signs or symptoms of possible COVID-19 and contact the local health department.
- Staff should help the operator in identifying exposure risks (contact tracing).
- Each sporting team is considered a cohort. Outside of the sporting event, mixing between cohorts is discouraged.
- Spectators should avoid being in groups larger than 10 people. Within these groups, individuals should minimize in-person contact with people not in the individual’s household, including practicing social distancing.
Youth Day Camp - opening May 31
No parents or guardians can visit the camp during or between camp sessions, except to drop-off and pick-up campers. Camps should coordinate with the local health department, local emergency services, and local health care providers before the start of a camp session and should ensure access to on-site medical personnel, or on-call physician, for the duration of a camp session. All employees should consider wearing masks.
Staff should:
- Provide notice to the parent or guardian that the parent or guardian may choose to either pick up their camper, or to let the camper remain and trust the camp to take appropriate safeguards, when informed by the camp operator that a child at camp has tested positive for COVID-19.
- Provide notice to all parents and guardians of the enhanced risks of campers being in direct contact with anyone age 65 or older for 14 days after the end of the camp session.
- Develop, train, and implement increased daily sanitization protocols for common surfaces, restrooms, dining halls, cabins, recreational equipment, and camp facilities.
- Make hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes, soap and water, or similar disinfectant readily available throughout the camp.
- Consider having an individual wholly or partially dedicated to ensuring the health protocols adopted by the camp are being successfully implemented and followed.
- Camp health policies and protocols should include communicating and coordinating with the local health department, local emergency services, and local health care providers before the start of a camp session. This coordination should include ensuring prompt and coordinated response to COVID19 and other emergencies.
Youth Overnight Camp - opening May 31
- Campers and staff should be separated into groups that do not change throughout the camp session and camp officials should discourage mixing between groups or cohorts.
- Staff should immediately isolate any camper or staff member who tests positive for COVID-19 and report the positive test to the appropriate health authority. If a staff member tests positive for COVID-19, the staff member will immediately leave the camp, and the camp operator should notify parents or guardians of possible exposure to a lab-confirmed case of COVID-19.
- If a camper tests positive for COVID-19, the camper’s parent or guardian should pick up, or arrange to have picked up, the camper within eight hours.
- When an individual tests positive for COVID-19, all parents or guardians of campers in the cohort should be notified. The parents or guardians may decide to either pick up their child from the camp or leave the child in the camp and trust the camp to take appropriate safeguards. Keep the cohort containing the individual who tested positive for COVID-19 isolated from other cohorts at the camp for the short of the remainder of the camp session or 14 days.
- If three or more cohorts have had any identified positive cases of COVID-19, work with state or local public health authorities, as applicable, about continued operations of the camp session.
Child care centers - opening immediately
Daycare and childcare centers may reopen as long as they:
- Consider making all employees wear face coverings
- Require sick children and staff to stay home
- Have a plan if or when someone becomes sick
- Limit the number of people coming into the facility to essential personnel
- Limit the mixing of groups to prevent possible spread
- Keep cribs/naptime mats at least 6 feet apart
- Screen all employees and children before coming into the facility
- Send home any employee or child that exhibits symptoms of COVID-19
- Pick up and drop off children outside the location
- Install hand sanitizing stations throughout the facility
Parents should also sanitize everything their child takes with them into the facility, including lunchboxes, reusable containers and toys. Avoid sending in items from your home for show and tell.
Zoos and aquariums - opening May 22
- Employees and customers must abide by the following guidelines:
- Maintain social distancing
- Stay in groups of 10 people or less
- Consider wearing face masks
- Sanitize the facility and barricade off frequently touched items as much as possible
- Make disinfectant readily available
- Keep all food and drink in contained, single-use, individually wrapped items
Skating rinks, bingo halls and bowling alleys - opening May 22
- Employees and customers must abide by the following guidelines:
- Maintain social distancing
- Stay in groups of 10 people or less
- Consider wearing face masks
- Sanitize the facility and clean off equipment after each use
- Use contactless payment when possible
- Make disinfectant readily available
- Keep all food and drink in contained, single-use, individually wrapped items
More on WFAA:
- Checklist: How Texas bars will operate when they can reopen May 22
- You can now call the IRS with your stimulus check questions
- President Trump says he's been taking malaria drug in case he gets COVID-19
- COVID-19 live updates: Gov. Greg Abbott announces more business reopenings Monday
- What will reopen on Monday in Texas?