Waller County Judge Trey Duhon says he expected to announce a stay-at-home order for his rural county this week, following the lead of other major counties in the region.

But then Duhon studied other localities’ orders and reflected on President Donald Trump’s message about how the country needs to start getting back to work in the coming weeks, a view not shared by many public health experts.

“It was just the notion that we can’t paralyzed by this event,” Duhon said by phone Wednesday, referring to Trump’s remarks. “America is about ingenuity, it’s about working, it’s about enterprise, it’s about free market. People get up, they go to work. They earn a living. They move up the ladder. That’s what we do. That’s what makes America successful. So, if we’re paralyzed and we do nothing, then everything will just collapse.”

On Wednesday, Duhon stopped short of issuing a stay-at-home order, reflecting a reluctance among some local leaders to adopt the most stringent rules available to them to slow the spread of COVID-19. While Democrat-led Harris and Fort Bend counties have issued stay-at-home orders, GOP-majority Montgomery County has not. Two other counties led by Republicans — Galveston and Brazoria — have opted for stay-at-home orders.

“This action is not being taken lightly,” said Brazoria County Judge Matt Sebesta, a Republican, during an address live-streamed on Facebook on Wednesday. “As cases rise, the advice across the board has been to take action (now) to slow the spread of this disease.”

Duhon offered a window into his decision-making process during a lengthy, late-night post to Facebook on Tuesday. He said he talked with many officials and reviewed the orders coming out in neighboring counties.

“I considered all of this information and tried to balance all of this with the tremendous economic impact that this will have on our local economy, jobs, and people's ability to pay their bills,” Duhon wrote in the Facebook post. “I also saw part of the President's address where he emphasized that America must eventually get back to work, or we may never recover, and the economic impact of this virus potentially being just as devastating as the virus itself.”

Many public health experts have taken issue with Trump’s statements, saying the country is still in the grips of a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic and that lifting restrictions on daily activities could undercut efforts to slow the virus’ spread and could cost lives.

Duhon wasn’t calling for restrictions to be lifted in his county of 51,000 residents, but he acknowledged struggling with how far to go in imposing them.

His order calls for residents and workers to stay 6 feet apart from one another and for restaurants to remain take-out, drive-thru and delivery only. It discourages gatherings of 10 or more and encourages residents to remain in their homes as much as possible, unless they’re going to work, for example. He advised that trips out of the house should be made for essential items only. Churches and other religious institutions should aim to provide services via video or teleconference. However, they are permitted to hold services outdoors if people are 6 feet apart.

If the number of coronavirus cases goes up in Waller County, he said, he would reassess. There were no confirmed cases in the county as of Wednesday afternoon.

The order would go into effect at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday and remain in effect until April 3.

In his Facebook post, Duhon said it bothered him “measures are being taken so easily and without regard to our basic constitutional freedoms.”

“This is NO QUESTION that this is a public health emergency, and there is no doubt about that, but at each and every step, we must always carefully balance the restrictions we put in place with a person's ability to ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,’” Duhon wrote.

Montgomery County Judge Mark Keough, a Republican, struck a similar theme this week when he said his county would not be ordering residents to stay at home.

“It is incumbent upon us as a county, as people, to self-regulate to keep from having our freedoms taken away,” said Keough.

Keough noted that county officials had already restricted gatherings to 10 people, closed bars and limited restaurants to pick-up or delivery. He said that if residents continued to follow the rules, they would remain free of more government control.

If people violated them, he said, the county of more than 500,000 people could end up with a shelter-in-place order.

In Duhon’s Facebook post, he also wondered how Harris and Fort Bend counties were going to enforce their orders given the number of exemptions and exclusions for essential services, and how they were different from the guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive orders.

“Maybe, that was the right thing for Houston to do, but I can’t imagine how they’re going to be enforcing that order all over the city of Houston,” Duhon told the Houston Chronicle. “I think that’s going to be a nightmare.”

Duhon said he also factored in what a stay-at-home order would do to small businesses. He said the county has a lot of mom-and-pop shops.

“I know those people personally,” said Duhon. “They said, ‘Trey, I know you gotta to do what you have to do’ but if we close, we’ll never re-open.’

“I (have) got to take care of those folks as well,” he added.

Carissa D. Lamkahouan contributed to this report.

brooke.lewis@chron.com