Fayette County Judge Joe Weber announced on Tuesday he’s attesting to Texas Department of State Health Services to exempt his county from the reduction.

“I intend to immediately file the necessary paperwork that will allow St. Marks to continue to provide the needed services to our residents and allow our businesses and restaurants to continue operating at 75%,” Weber said in a statement.

According to DSHS, Fayette County has not yet received the exemption. However, county officials say it should.

“Just in general, we don’t have people with more than 75% capacity,” Craig Moreau, chief of Emergency Management and Homeland Security in the county, said. “We try to limit the amount of people that are in our restaurants on a regular basis … It doesn’t look like the bar environment you see in major metropolitan areas.”

For elective surgeries, Moreau said they are necessary to keep the hospital open. St. Mark’s Medical Center is the only hospital servicing Fayette and Lee counties.

“That’s what the hospital is built around,” Moreau said. “We also have patients that don’t really have any access to get their problems fixed. You know, I take a little umbrage with the the term elective surgery because it’s not elective, like, ‘Hey, I’m going to go get a tummy tuck,’ or, you know, something of that nature. It’s not a truly elective surgery. The election comes, ‘Well, can I wait a week?’ Well, wait a week maybe. But that doesn’t mean I can wait a year.”