As the Delta variant continues to cause a disheartening rise in Covid-19 cases throughout the country, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins put out a chilling warning about the state of affairs in Dallas, Texas.
Texas is one of three states which make up for roughly 40% of new covid cases in the United States, with over 11 thousand people currently hospitalized with the deadly virus.
The sobering statistics don't seem to bother Republican Governor Greg Abbott, however, who signed an executive order in July stating no government entity, including schools, could require masks to be worn inside.
But Jenkins successfully challenged the order, eventually issuing his own order requiring masks to be worn not only at schools and government buildings, but also at restaurants and bars.
While Abbott tried to appeal the ruling at the 5th Court of Appeals in Dallas, the court ruled in Jenkins' favor, which Jenkins celebrated on Twitter.
That same day, however, Jenkins presented a terrifying statistic regarding children and Covid-19 in a television news conference, a portion of which was posted by The Recount.
In the video, Jenkins firmly announced that there are "zero" ICU beds remaining for children in all of Dallas.
"That means, if your child's in a car wreck, if your child has a congenital heart defect or something and needs and ICU bed, or more likely if they have Covid and need an ICU bed, we don't have one."
"Your child will wait for another child to die."
In a tweet posted to his own Twitter page, Jenkins also pointed out that the situation for adults in Dallas is almost equally dire.
As reported by The Huffington Post, , there are only 323 ICU beds currently available in the whole state of Texas, with an overwhelming majority of those hospitalized with Covid-19 having not received any doses of a Covid vaccine.
Jenkins wasn't the only elected Texas official to challenge Governor Abbott's mandate.
San Antonio and Bexar county filed a similar lawsuit against Abbot, and San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg openly criticized the governor on MSNBC.
"It is tragically ironic that the governor would use his emergency powers to prevent local officials and public health authorities from dealing with the actual emergency."
Jenkins' frightening warning resulted in countless people coming out to Twitter, to express their rage and fear at the current situation, particularly at the seemingly blatant disregard for the health and safety of children.
According to a report by Texas ABC affiliate WFAA, the current number of covid hospitalizations in Texas outnumber the surge in cases during the summer of 2020.
GOP Governor Abbott filed an appeal against Jenkins' challenge with the Texas Supreme Court. That judicial body sided with Abbott and temporarily blocked mask mandates.
But Jenkins expressed to CNN it's simply "not asking that much of people to wear a mask," and he hopes the health and safety of children will not remain a partisan issue.
"this is not a battle between Gov. Abbott and local leaders who happen to be Democrats or school board members."
"We are all on team public health, and every person needs to understand that the enemy is the virus, it's not each other."
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