Houston (United States) (AFP)

"What a joy to see faces without masks, smiles!" Exclaims Tom Williams who, passing through Texas, discovers the relaxation of health regulations in this American state anxious to turn the page of the pandemic as quickly as possible.

Installed in a Houston bar, he is struck by the contrast between the attitude of customers and the caution still in force in his small town of Steilacoom, near Seattle, more than 2,000 kilometers away.

Suddenly catching a glimpse of "the world after", without a mask and without a barrier gesture, puts this 50-year-old doctor who came to accompany his daughter to a volleyball tournament on a small cloud.

Building on the progress of vaccination, Texas, the second most populous state in the United States, a month ago lifted the obligation to wear a mask in public places and all health restrictions imposed until then on private establishments. .

Since then, each of them freely sets its policy.

Around tables placed at the back of cut-out pick-ups, the Truck Yard welcomes an open-air public who come to enjoy its margaritas, spring crayfish and tacos, pizzas or burgers.

Free to wear a mask or not, half of the customers dispense with it and ignore barrier gestures.

- "We don't care about the Covid" -

On this weekend night, the facility known for its 80-year-old Ferris wheel is filled with young supporters of the Astros, the Houston baseball team that plays at a nearby stadium that is at 50% capacity.

Among them, Chris Chambers, 22, admits "not having been very careful" in recent months: "I got engaged, I attended two weddings, I went to bars like this one, but I didn't have not contracted "the Covid-19!

In Houston, the number of new cases has fallen sharply since the start of the year but their level remains worrying according to health authorities.

Their development will depend in part on the speed at which its "super-contaminating" students will be vaccinated.

A third of Texans have already received at least one dose and the vaccine has been available since March 29 for all adults.

Chris Chambers has not yet sought to obtain it: "my mother received her doses so I'm not worried," he continues.

"If I get sick, I think I will recover within a week and everything will be fine."

"Since last May, we do not care about the Covid", adds a pressure glass in hand Matthew Diaz, who follows the finance courses of a New York establishment remotely.

What changed last month "is the law, but in Texas, it is secondary: the most important is what you think," he continues.

"In second only comes what the government wants us to think. So since May, we don't give a damn about the Covid."

- "Back to normal" -

David Foreman, the discreet manager of Truck Yard confirms that he has not felt any particular drop in activity in recent months: "Covid or not, when the weather is nice, there are people".

Some establishments have received threats on social networks when they have decided, as the law allows them, to no longer require their customers to wear a mask.

"This was not our case, explains David Foreman. It is rather the restaurants that have experienced this. Here, the clientele is much younger."

In a trailer transformed into a stage, Morgan McKay opens her guitar case on which it reads "Don't mess with Texas Music." Later, she will sing between painted portraits. bombshell from Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson, the founders of the country outlaw, born in the 60s in Texas.

"It feels so good to leave home, to feel a return to normalcy", rejoices the singer who, for her part, perceives a real change.

"Since the end of the restrictions, I have been inundated with requests. March has been crazy, April is going to be crazy!"

© 2021 AFP