Type of Intervention: Executive Order
Sectors Involved: Health
Intervention Categories: Legal and policy; Regulatory change; Planning and strategy
Level of Jurisdiction: Texas
Lead People/Agency: Gregg Abbott
Overview: Gregg Abbott issued an executive order enforcing state-run hospitals shall submit daily DSHS daily reports of hospital bed capacity. Additionally, Every public or private entity that is utilizing an FDA-approved test, including an emergency use authorization test, for human diagnostic purposes of COVID- 19, shall submit to DSHS, as well as to the local health department, daily reports of all test results, both positive and negative.
Full details here: https://gov.texas.gov/uploads/files/press/EO-GA-10_daily_reporting_of_COVID-19_IMAGE_03-24-2020.pdf
Type of Justification: Advice of EXTERNAL expert advisor or advisory committee
Source of Evidence or Justification: National – government
Evidence/Justification: Timely information about COVID-19 testing and hospital bed capacity is crucial to efforts to cope with the COVID-19 disaster; and Vice President Mike Pence, leader of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, has requested that every governor in the United States order daily reporting of these crucial pieces of information to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); and the “governor is responsible for meeting… the dangers to the state and people presented by disasters” under Section 418.0 11 of the Texas Government Code, and the legislature has given the governor broad authority to fulfill that responsibility; and under Section 4 18.012, the “governor may issue executive orders… hav[ing] the force and effect of law.”