The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Texas
- Level
- State
- Authority
- Tex. Health & Safety Code § 81.002
- Issued
- 1989-09-01 Sept. 1, 1989
- Effective
- standing (read as 1989-09-01)
- End
- standing (read as 2021-09-30)
- In force
- Standing since Sept. 1, 1989 (a statutory duty; in force throughout the six quarters)
- Quarters
- 2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Standing duty
- Addressees
- persons generally (each person, including employers and owners or persons in control of premises)
- Character
- statutory duty
- Collection
- Standing duties: Texas DUT-TX
Operative words
The state has a duty to protect the public health. Each person shall act responsibly to prevent and control communicable disease.
Penalty
No penalty in the section itself; the duty is enforced through the control-measure orders and offenses of §§ 81.083 to 81.087 (Exs. DUT-TX-003 to DUT-TX-006), the area-quarantine felony of § 81.085(h) (Ex. DUT-TX-005) and the public-health-nuisance offenses of ch. 341 (Ex. DUT-TX-017).
What it required
Every person in Texas, which includes every employer and every owner or operator of premises, was under a standing statutory command to act responsibly to prevent and control communicable disease, the command the Commissioner of State Health Services invoked in the public health disaster declaration of March 19, 2020 (Ex. DUT-TX-008).
Retrieval noteThe exhibit is the Texas Legislative Council's official chapter page as archived December 6, 2020, so it is the text in force during the claim period. Records DUT-TX-001 to DUT-TX-006 are sections of this one exhibit. The Department of State Health Services' release of March 19, 2020 (Ex. DUT-TX-008) reads § 81.002 as reaching 'People, businesses and communities.'.