Covid-19 News: Live Updates – The New York Times

The outrage didn’t stop at the Texas border.

If Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas thought he would be universally embraced at home after he suddenly announced that he was lifting a statewide mask requirement and allowing all businesses to operate at full capacity, he was quickly proved wrong.

“I don’t know what they’re thinking,” said Ernestine Cain, 52, a home health aide who was picking up a case of bottled water at a distribution site in San Antonio on Wednesday morning. “You still need to give it time. You can’t just cut it like that.”

Texas has been hit especially hard by the coronavirus pandemic, recording more than 44,000 deaths and nearly 2.7 million cases.

Sylvester Turner, the mayor of Houston, called the governor’s decision “dangerous.” Mayor Ron Nirenberg of San Antonio said it was a “huge mistake.” And Dr. Victor Treviño, the health authority of Laredo, said he feared that the move would “eliminate all the gains that we have achieved.”

Some, of course, were overjoyed.

“I’m proud to be Texan,” said Amber Rodriguez, 32, who owns an air-conditioning company in Houston and declared that “this is the first step to bring Texas back.”

Kendall Czech, 26, a leasing agent who moved to Dallas last summer from California in part because of that state’s strict Covid-19 restrictions, said, “I think that the governor just gained some guts.”

The reviews were less positive on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., where President Biden had harsh words for both Texas and Mississippi, whose governor also announced on Wednesday that he was lifting the statewide mask mandate and rescinding capacity limits on businesses.

Mr. Biden said that it was critical for officials to follow the guidance of public health experts as the vaccination campaign gains momentum.

“The last thing we need is Neanderthal thinking that in the meantime, everything’s fine, take off your mask and forget it,” the president told reporters at the White House.

Mississippi’s governor, Tate Reeves, a Republican like Mr. Abbott, was unrepentant.

“Mississippians don’t need handlers,” he said. “As numbers drop, they can assess their choices and listen to experts. I guess I just think we should trust Americans, not insult them.”

Mr. Reeves did, however, encourage his citizens to “do the right thing” and wear a mask.

So did the governor of Texas, where vaccinations considerably trail the national average, more than 7,000 new cases are being reported a day and, in recent weeks, ominous variants of the virus have appeared.

The decision to lift the restrictions was framed as long-awaited relief after an exhausting stretch of isolation and hardship. But many saw it as an attempt to distract Texans from the widespread infrastructure failures that left many without power and water after a brutal winter storm.

“It’s pretty obvious ,” said Kaitlyn Urenda-Culpepper, an El Pasoan now living in Dallas, echoing a commonly…