South San Antonio News

San Antonio, like many other cities across Texas, has selected a group of business and education leaders to provide guidance in reopening the city’s economy in the wake of COVID-19.

The group was hand-picked by Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff. It's tasked with developing a plan that can bring back commerce while ensuring the safety of not only the community but those who annually make San Antonio a destination for recreation and relaxation.

The coronavirus has had an impact on the economy estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The San Antonio Express News reported approximately 71,000 people in Bexar County filed for unemployment between March 15 and April 11. The city is also facing a $611 million shortfall in retail sales and hotel bookings in addition to large scale event cancellations.

The clock on developing a plan is ticking with expectations for results. The first formal proposal from the Economic Transition Team is expected the first week of May.

“What we’re trying to do is get the economy going, obviously, but at the same time, we have to be safe,” Magaly Chocano, a team member and owner of SWEB, a web and app development company, told KSAT.com. “The cool thing, I think, about our committee, is that there’s really big business like Toyota. There’s small business like ours. There’s the restaurant industry.”

She told KSAT she has begun developing ideas she wants to include, namely protocols in sanitation and limiting the number of people in a gathering.

The first case of the coronavirus was discovered in San Antonio in mid-February. A state of local disaster was declared by Wolff on March 13. As of April 17, all people must wear a mask in public through April 30. The county is currently under a stay-at-home order.

NEWS4SA reported Nirenberg and Wolff would meet with the city council during the last week of April and discuss the executive orders and make decisions accordingly.

As of April 30, Texas reported 28,087 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, including 732 deaths. Bexar County has 1,326 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Of the positive tests, 57 are inmates in the Bexar County Adult Detention Center.