City and County Prohibit “Trick or Treating” Due to COVID-19 Pandemic
By: Miguel Munoz, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2020
The City of Eagle Pass and Maverick County have issued an Emergency Public Health Declaration on Wednesday, October 28, 2020 prohibiting “Trick or Treating” from door to door within Maverick County at multi-family and single-family residences on Saturday, October 31, 2020 from 6 A.M. to 11:59 P.M. due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Maverick County Judge David R. Saucedo signed the Emergency Public Health Declaration stating that due to the surge of new COVID-19 cases within the State of Texas and the United States, the City and County Emergency Operations Center deemed it best to prohibit door to door residential “trick or treating” within Maverick County to avoid the spread of COVID-19 infections and protect the health and safety of local citizens.
County Judge Saucedo noted that a violation of this October 28, 2020 Emergency Public Health Declaration may result in being issued a citation by local law enforcement officers with a fine of up to $1,000.
The United States reported its highest daily record of new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, October 29, 2020 with 88,521 cases and 971 deaths due to COVID-19, sparking a new third wave of COVID-19 infections in the country. This is the highest daily number of new COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began.
Texas is similarly beginning to report an increase of new COVID-19 cases in the final week of October 2020, just a few days before the November 3rd United States Presidential Election. Most notably, the City of El Paso, Texas has been besieged by multiple days of over 1,000 new COVID-19 cases during the past week, causing the local hospitals to be overwhelmed and the State of Texas to build a temporary hospital to handle the overflow of COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization.
County Judge Saucedo stated that the City of Eagle Pass and Maverick County are attempting to avoid a similar surge of new COVID-19 cases from spreading in Maverick County.
Eagle Pass Mayor Luis E. Sifuentes encouraged parents to comply with the new Emergency Declaration prohibiting door to door “trick or treating” at multi-family and single-family residences to protect their children from becoming infected with COVID-19. Sifuentes encouraged parents to develop creative in-house activities for their children in lieu of taking them out “trick or treating.”
