The Metros

Houston

Name: Houston: local governmental orders, March 2020 through September 2021
Creator: The COVID Project

The Houston file holds 78 instruments from the counties, cities, health officers, courts and transit authorities of the area, 76 of them with the exhibit file held by The COVID Project. The statewide orders that ran over the same ground are in the Texas file.

Code HOUState TexasFirst closure or stay-at-home order Mar. 17, 2020 Ex. MET-HOU-002Orders reaching 2021 Q3 17Primary source read 63 Confirmed from a secondary source 15

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The record in brief

ScopeCounty and municipal COVID-19 instruments of the Houston metropolitan area (Harris County Judge and Commissioners Court, Harris County Local Health Authority, Harris County district courts, City of Houston Mayor, Fort Bend County Judge and Commissioners Court, Montgomery County judiciary, Galveston County Judge, METRO), March 11, 2020 through September 30, 2021, with the State preemption and August 2021 litigation history. Statewide instruments (GA series, Texas Supreme Court Emergency Orders, DSHS declarations) are cited by name and date only.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo declared a local state of disaster for public health emergency on March 11, 2020 (Tex. Gov't Code 418.108(a)); Mayor Sylvester Turner proclaimed a local state of disaster for Houston the same day, signed the Executive Order implementing the Mayor's emergency powers, closed the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and cancelled City-sponsored and permitted events; Fort Bend County declared March 12 and Galveston County March 17, 2020. The declarations were renewed continuously through 2021 (Harris Commissioners Court March 17 and 24, April 28, May 19, June 9, June 30, August 25, 2020 and thereafter; Houston City Council indefinitely on March 17, 2020). Closures began March 16-17, 2020: Harris County and Houston closed bars and ended dine-in service effective 8:00 a.m. March 17 (Harris order of March 16, Mayor's order of March 19); Fort Bend closed bars, gyms and dine-in from March 18 and, on March 20, salons, spas, theaters, game rooms and bingo halls, limited public access to county offices and prohibited congregating with a $1,000/180-day penalty. The stay-home layer took effect at 11:59 p.m. March 24, 2020 in Harris County (Stay Home, Work Safe, adopted by Houston) and Galveston County (which also prohibited all elective medical, surgical and dental procedures) and at 12:01 a.m. March 25 in Fort Bend (Third Amended and Restated Order, 'Stay Home to Save Lives'): residents ordered to stay home except for essential activities; all non-essential businesses required to cease activities at their facilities; all gatherings outside a household prohibited; religious services by video only; violation a $1,000 fine or 180 days. Harris extended its order April 3 through April 30, 2020, cancelled the April 7 and May 5, 2020 foreclosure and judicial sales, closed county parks for Easter, required face coverings in public from April 27, 2020 ($1,000 fine) and, after GA-18 barred local mask penalties, converted the requirement to a recommendation on April 28. Galveston County closed every beach and access point April 10-30, 2020. The Fourth Amended Stay Home, Work Safe Order carried the county regime to June 10, 2020 in harmony with GA-23 (minimize gatherings; non-covered services should cease; amusement venues, concert halls and performing-arts venues must remain closed). Second quarter close: the Harris Order Regarding Health and Safety Policy and Face Coverings (June 19, effective June 22, 2020) required every commercial entity serving the public to develop, post and implement a policy requiring employee and visitor face coverings, with a fine up to $1,000 per violation, and required masks on all persons ten and older inside commercial entities; Fort Bend issued its Order Regarding Use of Facial Protection June 23 and extended it June 30; Houston's Fourth Amended Order (June 29, 2020) adopted GA-28 word for word, cancelled all City-permitted gatherings, imposed the same commercial-entity policy mandate with fines of $200 to $2,000 per day, and ran coterminous with GA-28 and its successors (to March 10, 2021). Third quarter 2020: the Harris amended order of July 1 (through August 26, then extended August 26, 2020 to fourteen days after the Governor's final disaster declaration), the Outdoor Gatherings Order of July 3 (outdoor gatherings over 10 prohibited through August 26, 2020), the Joint Control Order of the Harris County and Houston Local Health Authorities of July 24, 2020 (no on-campus instruction before September 8, 2020; no in-person school events), monthly sale cancellations (August 4, September 1), Houston police enforcement of GA-29 with $250 citations from August 3, 2020, and the district courts' 10-person courtroom and remote regime. Fourth quarter 2020 and first quarter 2021: the Harris business mask/policy mandate and Houston's order in force throughout beside GA-29 and GA-32; monthly sale cancellations (October 6, November 3, December 1, 2020; January 5, February 2, March 2, April 6, 2021); county-building screening and mask orders renewed (November 30, 2020; March 9, 2021, the day before GA-34 took effect); the courts' March 15, 2021 Operating Plan (masks required to enter any courthouse; capacity caps). GA-34 (effective March 10, 2021) preempted the business mask mandates; Fort Bend posted a Local Mask Order March 9, 2021. Second quarter 2021: the last sale cancellation (May 4, 2021); GA-36 (effective May 21) barred governmental mask requirements; the Commissioners Court's May 25, 2021 order kept screening at every county building and masks for county employees. Third quarter 2021: on July 1 the declarations, the May 25 county-building order, the courts' Operating Plan and Fort Bend's posted Local Mask Order were in force, with the federal transit mask order on METRO; after GA-38 (July 29, 2021) Harris County issued the Local Administrative Judge's courthouse mask orders (August 11 and 17; effective August 12 through October 1, 2021), the Local Health Authority's school and child-care universal-masking and 14-day quarantine order (August 12, 2021) and the County Judge's Eighth Order requiring masks of every person entering a county building (August 17, 2021), sued the Governor and Attorney General August 12, 2021 (TRO August 13; temporary injunction August 27, 2021, superseded by the State's appeal; affirmed January 6, 2022; reversed June 30, 2023), and re-adopted the courts' Operating Plan September 30, 2021 through December 1, 2021; the Montgomery County judiciary adopted Second Amended Minimum Standard Health Protocols in August 2021. No local vaccination-proof order issued in the metro.

The six quarters

What the record shows in force in Houston on the first day and the last day of each quarter. Every exhibit named here opens its record. The orders of March 13 to 31, 2020 belong to the second quarter of 2020, because wages paid after March 12, 2020 fall in that quarter.

Quarter	First day	Last day
2020 Q2Second quarter of 2020The quarter nationally →	Apr. 1, 2020: Harris Stay Home, Work Safe (MET-HOU-005), extended Apr. 3 to Apr. 30 (-006); Houston Mayor's Mar. 19 gatherings/bars order (recited in -043); Fort Bend Stay Home to Save Lives (-074); Galveston Stay at Home (-055); Harris County Buildings screening (-004); courts at 10-person occupancy (-048); declarations (-001, -042, -071); GA-14 from Apr. 2	June 30, 2020: Harris Health and Safety Policy and face-covering order (-016; amended July 1, -020); Houston Fourth Amended Order (-043); Harris Fifth county-building order (-018); Fort Bend facial-protection order and June 30 extension (-064, -076); declarations (-019); GA-28 bar closure and 50 percent restaurants
2020 Q3Third quarter of 2020The quarter nationally →	July 1, 2020: -020 (business mask policy mandate, $1,000 fine), -043, -018, declarations; GA-28; GA-29 from July 3	Sept. 30, 2020: -023 (mandate extended indefinitely Aug. 26), -043, -018, Oct. 6 sale cancellation (-025); GA-28, GA-29
2020 Q4Fourth quarter of 2020The quarter nationally →	Oct. 1, 2020: -023, -043, -018, -025; GA-28, GA-29; GA-32 from Oct. 14	Dec. 31, 2020: -023, -043, Sixth Order (-028), Jan. 5 sale cancellation (-029); GA-32, GA-29
2021 Q1First quarter of 2021The quarter nationally →	Jan. 1, 2021: -023, -043, -028, -029 (amended -030 Jan. 4); GA-32, GA-29	Mar. 31, 2021: Seventh Order county buildings (-034); courts' Operating Plan (-051); Apr. 6 sale cancellation (-035); Fort Bend Local Mask Order (-065); declarations; GA-34 in force since Mar. 10 (business mask mandates preempted)
2021 Q2Second quarter of 2021The quarter nationally →	Apr. 1, 2021: -034, -051, -035, -065; declarations; GA-34	June 30, 2021: Commissioners Court county-building order (-037); -051; -065 as posted; declarations; GA-36 (eff. May 21) barring governmental mask requirements; last sale cancellation May 4 (-036)
2021 Q3Third quarter of 2021The quarter nationally →	July 1, 2021: -037, -051, declarations (-001, -042), -065 as posted; CDC/TSA transit mask order on METRO (federal exhibits); GA-34/GA-36	Sept. 30, 2021: LHA school and child-care mask and quarantine order (-038); Eighth Order county buildings (-039); Local Administrative Judge courthouse mask orders (-052, -053, to Oct. 1); Second Re-Adoption of courts' plan (-054, to Dec. 1); Montgomery judiciary protocols (-057); declarations; GA-38 (July 29) under litigation (-060 to -063)

The end of general restrictions

The day the general business restrictions ended in Houston, the instrument that ended them, and what the record shows still in force afterward. The end of the general orders is not the end of the record: sector rules, standing duties and the federal layer continue past it.

End of general restrictions

June 10, 2020

Instrument Harris County Fourth Amended Stay Home, Work Safe Order (May 21, 2020) expired by its terms 11:59 p.m. June 10, 2020; statewide reopening under GA-18 (Apr. 27, 2020), GA-23 (May 18, 2020) and GA-26 (June 3, 2020) had displaced county closures earlier

What remained in force

Harris County and Houston business Health and Safety Policy and face-covering mandates (June 22, 2020 - March 10, 2021); Outdoor Gatherings Order (July 3 - Aug. 26, 2020); county-building screening and mask orders continuously from March 19, 2020 into 2022; monthly foreclosure, tax and judicial sale cancellations (Apr. 7, 2020 - May 4, 2021); district courts' occupancy, remote-hearing and mask plans (Mar. 24, 2020 through Dec. 1, 2021 and beyond); LHA school orders of July 24, 2020 and Aug. 12, 2021; local disaster declarations; State GA-28/GA-29/GA-32 to Mar. 10, 2021; GA-34, GA-36, GA-38 thereafter

The State and the local orders

GA-14 (Mar. 31, 2020) superseded conflicting local orders; GA-18 (Apr. 27, 2020) barred local penalties for failure to wear face coverings (Harris amended its mask order Apr. 28, 2020, Ex. MET-HOU-009); GA-26 (June 3) and GA-28 (June 26, 2020) permitted local orders requiring businesses to adopt mask policies and county-judge restrictions on outdoor gatherings, the authority Harris and Houston used June 19 - Aug. 26, 2020 (Ex. -016, -020, -021, -043); GA-29 (July 2, 2020) statewide mask order; GA-34 (Mar. 2, 2021, eff. Mar. 10, 2021) rescinded statewide mandates and barred jurisdictions from requiring face coverings or penalizing failure to mandate them, with a narrow carve-out; GA-36 (May 18, 2021, effective immediately; fines of up to $1,000 beginning 11:59 p.m. May 21, 2021; school districts exempt until 11:59 p.m. June 4, 2021) barred governmental entities from requiring face coverings; GA-38 (July 29, 2021, 46 Tex. Reg. 4913) consolidated the ban and purported to suspend Tex. Gov't Code 418.108 and the Health and Safety Code provisions relied on locally. Harris County v. Abbott, Travis County No. D-1-GN-21-003896 (filed Aug. 12, 2021): TRO Aug. 13, 2021; temporary injunction Aug. 27, 2021 (Mauzy, J.); the State's notice of appeal of Aug. 27, 2021 superseded the injunction (Tex. R. App. P. 29.1(b)); Third Court of Appeals denied temporary relief Oct. 21, 2021 and affirmed Jan. 6, 2022 (Abbott v. Harris County, 641 S.W.3d 514, Ex. MET-HOU-060); Supreme Court of Texas reversed and dissolved the injunction June 30, 2023 (No. 22-0124, Ex. MET-HOU-061), holding the Disaster Act authorized the Governor to prohibit local mask requirements, and noting none of the injunctions against GA-38 was in effect during the appeals; the Attorney General's Aug. 2021 filings represented that neither he nor the Governor could enforce GA-38 (Ex. MET-HOU-063). GA-38 expired June 2023; Senate Bill 29 (Tex. Health & Safety Code 81B.002) took effect Sept. 1, 2023. The Aug. 12 and Aug. 17, 2021 Harris County orders remained the operative local law throughout Q3 2021.

Third quarter of 2021

July 1 through September 30, 2021, the last claimable quarter: the instruments the record shows in force in Houston. An order in force on any day of the quarter is an order in force during it. The quarter nationally →

In force (12)

MET-HOU-001 (Harris declaration, renewed)
MET-HOU-042/-045 (Houston proclamation, indefinitely extended)
MET-HOU-037 (Commissioners Court county-building screening and employee mask order, May 25, 2021)
MET-HOU-039 (Eighth Order: masks for all entrants to county buildings from Aug. 17, 2021)
MET-HOU-038 (LHA Order Regarding Public Schools, Aug. 12, 2021: universal masking K-12 and licensed child care; 14-day quarantine of unvaccinated close contacts)
MET-HOU-041 (HCPH release of the same)
MET-HOU-052/-053 (Local Administrative Judge courthouse face-covering orders, Aug. 12 - Oct. 1, 2021)
MET-HOU-051 (courts' COVID-19 Operating Plan of Mar. 15, 2021, in force July 1)
MET-HOU-054 (Second Re-Adoption of the Operating Plan, Sept. 30 - Dec. 1, 2021)
MET-HOU-057 (Montgomery County judiciary Second Amended Minimum Standard Health Protocols, Aug. 2021)
Federal: CDC conveyance mask order (86 Fed. Reg. 8025) and TSA security directives on METRO (FED exhibits)
State by name: Governor's disaster proclamation (renewed monthly); GA-38 (July 29, 2021); Supreme Court of Texas Fortieth and following Emergency Orders; DSHS public-health disaster declaration

Sector chronology

How the orders reached each kind of business in Houston, sector by sector, in the order the record gives. Open a sector to read its chronology; every exhibit named opens its record.

Restaurants and bars

Dine-in prohibited and bars closed from 8 a.m. Mar. 17, 2020 (-002, -003; Fort Bend -072, -073; Houston -078); stay-home orders continued take-out only (-005, -074, -055); GA-18 (May 1, 25%), GA-21/23 (May 18, 50%), GA-26 (June 12, 75%) by name; bars closed again June 26, 2020 (GA-28); customer-facing entities under local mask-policy mandate June 22, 2020 - Mar. 10, 2021 (-016, -020, -023, -043).

Retail

Non-essential retail ceased facility activities Mar. 24 - Apr. 30, 2020 (-005, -006; -074; -055); Harris retail protocols order May 21, 2020 (-070); mask-policy mandate June 22, 2020 - Mar. 10, 2021 (-016, -043).

Personal care

Salons, spas, massage and tattoo closed by Fort Bend Mar. 21, 2020 (-073) and by the stay-home orders; -012 recites salons were neither essential nor reopened services until GA-21 (May 8, 2020); mask-policy mandate to Mar. 10, 2021.

Fitness and entertainment

Gyms closed (-072, -073, stay-home orders); interactive amusement venues, arcades, concert halls, performing-arts venues must remain closed through June 10, 2020 (-012); outdoor gatherings over 10 prohibited July 3 - Aug. 26, 2020 (-021); county parks closed Apr. 9-13, 2020 (-007); Galveston beaches closed Apr. 10-30, 2020 (-056).

Hotels and short-term rentals

Stay-home orders reached lodging demand (-005, -055, -074); Galveston beaches closed Apr. 10-30, 2020 (-056).

Offices and telework

Non-essential businesses required to cease activities at facilities, work from home permitted (-005, -074, -055); employers encouraged to permit as many employees as feasible to work from home to June 10, 2020 (-012); Health and Safety Policy mandates for customer-facing entities (-016, -043); Fort Bend county offices limited to essential functions from Mar. 21, 2020 (-073, -074).

Manufacturing

Essential manufacturing permitted with distancing; other manufacturing ordered to cease facility activities Mar. 24 - Apr. 30, 2020 (-005, -074); retooling exemption in -074.

Construction

Permitted as essential infrastructure with distancing (-005 sec. 2, -074); Harris construction workforce protocols order May 21, 2020 (-013).

Real estate

Harris County cancelled the first-Tuesday foreclosure, tax and judicial sales every month from Apr. 7, 2020 through May 4, 2021 (-011, -021 para. 1.a, -022, -024 to -027, -029 to -033, -035, -036; Apr. 3, 2020 order in index -079); county clerk and recorder access limited by county-building screening and mask orders (-004, -015, -017, -018, -028, -034, -037, -039).

Hospitals and long-term care

State layer by name (GA-08 visitation bar; GA-09, GA-15, GA-19 procedures); Harris declaration authorized Local Health Authority control orders (-001).

Dental and elective health care

Galveston County prohibited all elective medical, surgical and dental procedures from 11:59 p.m. Mar. 24, 2020 (-055); Harris and Fort Bend deferred to GA-09 (Mar. 22, 2020) and GA-15 (Apr. 17, 2020) by name.

Schools

Closed by GA-08, GA-14, GA-16 (by name); LHA joint order barred on-campus instruction before Sept. 8, 2020 and in-person school events (-040); LHA order of Aug. 12, 2021 required universal masking and 14-day quarantine of unvaccinated close contacts (-038, -041).

Child care

Permitted as essential in 2020 (-005); licensed child-care centers bound by the Aug. 12, 2021 LHA masking order (-038).

Worship and gatherings

All gatherings outside a household prohibited Mar. 24 - Apr. 30, 2020; religious services by video and teleconference only (-005, -074); gatherings strongly discouraged to June 10, 2020 (-012); outdoor gatherings over 10 prohibited July 3 - Aug. 26, 2020 (-021); City-permitted events cancelled from Mar. 11, 2020 and for the duration of GA-28 (-043, -044, -045).

Courts and public offices

Courtroom occupancy of ten and limited operating courtrooms from Mar. 24, 2020 (-048); family courts' remote and essential-matters regime Apr. 1 - June 1, 2020 (-049); emergency scheduling procedures (-050); masks required to enter courthouses from Mar. 15, 2021 (-051) and by Local Administrative Judge order Aug. 12 - Oct. 1, 2021 (-052, -053); plan re-adopted to Dec. 1, 2021 (-054); county buildings screened continuously from Mar. 19, 2020 (-004 et seq.); Montgomery judiciary protocols Aug. 2021 (-057).

Travel and quarantine

METRO rear-door boarding, reduced passenger loads, fare suspension and HOV/HOT closure from Mar. 30, 2020 (-059); operators masked, riders encouraged (-058); Galveston beach access closed Apr. 10-30, 2020 (-056); Fort Bend required compliance with quarantine instructions from Mar. 21, 2020 (-073); Harris LHA 14-day quarantine of unvaccinated school close contacts from Aug. 12, 2021 (-038); GA-11 and GA-12 travel quarantines by name.

Face coverings

Harris public mask order Apr. 27, 2020 ($1,000 fine, -008), converted to recommendation Apr. 28 under GA-18 (-009); business mask-policy mandates June 22, 2020 - Mar. 10, 2021 (-016, -020, -023; Houston -043; Fort Bend -064); GA-29 July 3, 2020 - Mar. 10, 2021 enforced by HPD from Aug. 3, 2020 (-047); county-building masks Mar. 9, 2021 onward (-034, -037, -039); courthouse masks Mar. 15, 2021 onward (-051 to -054); school masks Aug. 12, 2021 (-038); Fort Bend Local Mask Order Mar. 9, 2021 (-065).

Vaccination mandates

None issued by any local authority in the metro through Sept. 30, 2021; Harris County employee mask rules of May 25 and Aug. 17, 2021 did not turn on vaccination status; Houston stated May 18, 2021 that it was not mandating masks for City employees.

On the calendar

Every dated instrument in the Houston file across the nineteen months from March 2020 through September 2021, in the order it took effect. A bar takes the color of the instrument's first limitation type and runs from its effective month through its end month; a fading edge marks an instrument whose end the record does not date. Point at a bar for its dates; open the bar for the record.

Emergency declaration 9Stay-at-home 6Business closure 13Capacity limit 6Gathering cap 13Face-covering requirement 22Travel and quarantine 1Schools and child care 3Health care orders 1Alcohol and bars 6Events and venues 10Courts and public offices 36Workplace rules 12Quarantine and isolation 2Other 7