'And then, boom': Outbreak shows shaky ground as Texas opens

PARIS, Texas (AP) — Barely a week ago, rural Lamar County could make a pretty good argument for Texas' reopening on Friday.

Only a handful of the 50,000 residents here, right on the border with Oklahoma, had tested positive for the coronavirus. None had died. The mayor of Paris, Texas — a pit stop for drivers passing through to snap a selfie with the city's miniaturized Eiffel Tower — had drive-thru virus testing in the works, just to give locals peace of mind. Some wore masks but many saw little reason to bother.

Then an outbreak at a nursing home turned up over the weekend.

Now at least 65 people are infected, and everything has changed. A courier drove 11 hours through the night to pick up testing kits and stores are second-guessing reopening as Lamar County becomes a cautionary tale of the fragility of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's plan to get Texas back in business faster than many states. And on the eve of every retailer, restaurant and movie theater being allowed to let customers back in the door, Texas set a single-day record high for fatalities Thursday with 50.

“We don’t know what it’s going to do here,” said Taylor Wright, owner of Aden Ann's, a women's boutique in Paris. Word of the sudden outbreak at Paris Healthcare Center, she said, shelved her plans to reopen over fears of exposing her staff and family.

“We don’t know where it’s all spreading," she said.

The whiplash in Paris from healthy outlier to overnight hot spot illustrates the balancing act states are taking on as they begin relaxing public health restrictions, particularly in places with Republican governors, who broadly support President Donald Trump's determination to get the U.S. economy back up and running.

In Texas, Abbott's instinct throughout the crisis has been to...