Dallas County closes sexually oriented businesses, cigar bars to slow spread of COVID-19

DALLAS - Dallas County announced the closure of strip clubs/sexually oriented businesses and cigar bars on Friday in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19.

County Judge Clay Jenkins made the announcement Friday afternoon and said the decision was made because of the establishments’ refusal to follow coronavirus safety guidelines.

Code compliance officers visited the businesses multiple times in an effort to get them to comply, but the operators did not cooperate.

Jenkins said the county sent a letter to Gov. Abbott Thursday night about the decision to close the businesses but didn’t hear back. So on Friday, county officials chose to move forward on their own.

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"They operate just like bars ... and pose similar risks," said Dr. Philip Huang, Dallas County Health and Human Services.

Officials said they had received complaints about the way they were operating during the pandemic.

Dallas County reported 659 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, the fourth day in a row the county reported less than 1,000 new cases. Jenkins credited the mask order with the recent downward trend in cases

There have been a total of 44,746 cases and 586 deaths from the coronavirus in the county since the pandemic began.