Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he plans to issue an executive order next week that will lift lockdown restrictions and allow some businesses to reopen.

The decision highlights growing debate among state and federal officials regarding when economies should reopen in the face of a looming recession and skyrocketing unemployment rates, as public health officials urge continued lockdowns to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

"We can and we must do this," Abbott said in a press conference on Friday. "We can do both, expand and restore the livelihoods that Texans want to have by helping them return to work. One thing about Texans, they enjoy working and they want to get back into the workforce. We have to come up with strategies on how we can do this safely."

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Texas is finagling a way to ease stay-at-home restrictions and reopen businesses, with the help of an executive order that Republican Governor Greg Abbott is expected to issue in the coming week.

In a press conference on Friday, Abbott said the focus of the order will be "restoring livelihoods" and helping Texans re-enter the workforce. The announcements come less than two weeks after the governor told residents to stay at home for the month of April, an order that he declined to refer to as a shelter-in-place policy following a month of partial county-specific lockdowns.

Currently, 42 US states, Guam, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico are under lockdown orders, comprising 95% of America's population.

"We can and we must do this," Abbott said. "We can do both, expand and restore the livelihoods that Texans want to have by helping them return to work. One thing about Texans, they enjoy working and they want to get back into the workforce. We have to come up with strategies on how we can do this safely."

According to numbers provided by Abbott in the press conference, 116,000 Texans have been tested for the coronavirus, of which 11,449 tested positive. Texas, which is the second largest state in the US, currently has the tenth highest number of confirmed cases.

The move highlights growing debate among state and federal officials regarding when economies should reopen in the face of a looming recession and mounting unemployment rates, as public health officials urge continued lockdowns to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

It also coincides with President Donald Trump's announcement of a task force dedicated to "opening our country," saying in a press conference that he aims "to get it open as soon as possible."

However, medical officials said that in order to slow the spread of the virus and flatten the national curve, loosened lockdowns and easing social-distancing policies should not happen in the immediate future unless coronavirus testing becomes more readily available.

"Our testing infrastructure, which was abysmal, is now mediocre, but nowhere near adequate for opening up," Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, told Business Insider's Charles Davis.

In the Friday press conference, Abbott claimed he has a plan to ramp up testing in the state, citing a partnership with Walgreens that allegedly can be administered through a drive-through window and provides results to Texans in 15 minutes.

"We will operate strategically," Abbott said. "If we do it too fast without appropriate strategies, it will lead to another potential closure."