The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Texas
- Level
- State
- Authority
- Tex. Health & Safety Code § 81.002 (recited); § 81.003(7) and § 81.082(d) (public health disaster)
- Issued
- 2020-03-19 Mar. 19, 2020
- Effective
- 2020-03-19
- End
- The declaration it announces ran 30 days and was renewed (the release is a statement of record, not an expiring instrument) (read as 2021-09-30)
- In force
- Mar. 19, 2020 to Sept. 30, 2021
- Quarters
- 2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Emergency declarationStay-at-homeGathering capWorkplace rulesStanding duty
- Addressees
- persons generally; employers ('businesses'); communities
- Character
- guidance incorporated
- Collection
- Standing duties: Texas DUT-TX
Operative words
The declaration cites the requirement under Section 81.002 of the Texas Health and Safety Code that "each person shall act responsibly to prevent and control communicable disease." To do that: People, businesses and communities should immediately undertake hygiene, cleanliness and sanitation practices that are accessible, affordable and known to be effective against COVID-19.
Penalty
The practices are stated with 'should' (recommendation); the § 81.002 duty and the control-measure offenses of §§ 81.085(h) and 81.087 supply the compulsion, and GA-08 made the gathering and closure rules orders with the § 418.173 penalty (Exs. TX-003, DUT-TX-012)
What it required
The State's chief health officer declared a public health disaster under chapter 81 for the first time in the State's history, construed the standing duty of § 81.002 as binding 'People, businesses and communities,' and stated the practices the duty called for (hygiene, cleanliness and sanitation practices; limiting trips to essential outings; limiting close contact; isolation of the symptomatic; gatherings limited to ten), which the Governor commanded the same day by GA-08 (Ex. TX-003).
Retrieval noteThe release was first published at https://www.dshs.texas.gov/news/releases/2020/20200319.aspx (archived March 22, 2020); the exhibit is the same release on DSHS's current site as archived January 27, 2023, rendered in full (a rendering of the 2020 page clipped the right margin and was discarded). Honesty rule: the release's practices are recommendations ('should'); the duty it cites is mandatory ('shall').