The government of Texas's initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the state consisted of a decentralized system that was mostly reliant on local policies. As the pandemic progressed in Texas and throughout the rest of the country, the Texas government closed down several businesses and parks, and it eventually imposed a statewide stay-at-home order in late May. Then, between May and June 2020, the state government initiated a phased reopening, which was viewed as controversial. The reopening was phased back in June and July 2020 following a new surge of COVID-19 cases in the state. In March 2021, as COVID-19 vaccines began to be administered throughout the U.S., the Texas government reopened the state again.
Background
On December 31, 2019, China reported a cluster of pneumonia cases in its city of Wuhan. On January 7, 2020, the Chinese health authorities confirmed that this cluster was caused by a novel infectious coronavirus. On January 8, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued an official health advisory via its Health Alert Network (HAN) and established an Incident Management Structure to coordinate domestic and international public health actions."Outbreak of Pneumonia of Unknown Etiology (PUE) in Wuhan, China" , CDC, January 8, 2020 On January 10 and 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned about a strong possibility of human-to-human transmission and urged precautions. On January 20, the WHO and China confirmed that human-to-human transmission had occurred.
The initial origin of community spread in Texas remains unclear, but numerous anecdotal accounts by those later confirmed have included onset dates as early as December 28 in Point Venture, and retrospective analyses have found unexplained statistical increases in deaths during this time. Testing capacity across the state remained extremely limited until after the first recorded cases were announced.
Research from Austin Public Health conducted in May found 68 COVID-19 patients in Central Texas who began reporting symptoms dating back to around the beginning of March. On March 2, San Antonio Mayor Nirenberg issued a public health emergency after an individual positive for the virus is mistakenly released from quarantine at JBSA–Lackland. Two days later, the DSHS reports a presumptive positive test result for COVID-19 from a resident of Fort Bend County in the Houston area. A man in his 70s, he is the first known positive case of the disease in Texas outside of those evacuated from Wuhan and the Diamond Princess cruise ship. The patient had recently traveled to Egypt and was hospitalized.
Timeline Initial actions and first lockdown
In March 2020, The Texas Tribune described the state's pandemic response as a "patchwork system" characterized by its decentralized nature and reliance on locally enacted policies.
The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) activated a virtual State Medical Operations Center (SMOC) in January 2020 to coordinate data collection and activities between the state and local agencies. The department and local health departments also began assessing recent travelers to Hubei Province in China with respiratory ailments for possible testing for SARS-CoV-2, encouraging individuals to "contact their health care provider if they develop fever, cough or shortness of breath within 14 days of being in Hubei." The Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) was tasked with logistical coordination on health supplies with local groups. A briefing was held by Abbott on January 27 concerning the COVID-19 outbreak; HHS Commissioner Courtney Philips, DSHS Health Services Commissioner John William Hellerstedt, and TDEM Chief Nim Kidd delivered the briefing. On January 30, Abbott joined other state governors in a conference call with U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, CDC Director Robert Redfield, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, and other health officials to discuss disease mitigation and prevention strategies. State officials from emergency management, health services, law enforcement, public schools, and universities also met the same morning to outline logistics and coronavirus information.
A state of disaster was declared by Abbott for all counties in Texas on March 13, giving emergency powers to Abbott and his administration to order lockdowns. Throughout March, the state waived various healthcare and economic regulations. These included waived trucking and licensing regulations for drivers, alcohol delivery from bars and restaurants, and Medicaid regulations. Abbott and the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) requested health insurers and health maintenance organizations to waive pandemic-related costs for patients on March 5. The Texas Supreme Court ruled to suspend most eviction proceedings by at least a month on March 19. Several regulations were waived to increase the state's medical workforce; inactive and retired nurses were allowed to reactivate their licenses and temporary licensing was expedited for out-of-state medical professionals. Local governments were authorized to delay local elections for 2020. The federal government supplied $628.8 million in public assistance grants to Texas through FEMA following a federal disaster declaration on March 25. Additional federal funding was also distributed through the CARES Act, Small Business Administration,
On March 19, Abbott ordered the temporary prohibition of dining at bars and restaurants and the closure of gyms effective beginning the following day in a series of executive orders. Social gatherings involving more than 10 people were also prohibited. Two days later, hospitals were allowed to have more than one patient per room and "elective or non-essential" medical procedures were ordered suspended. A legal dispute emerged after Attorney General Ken Paxton confirmed that most abortions were included in the suspension. The United States District Court for the Western District of Texas blocked the abortion ban on March 30, which was overturned by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on March 31. A three-judge panel on the Fifth Circuit reaffirmed the ban on April 10. Texas became the 21st state to activate its National Guard on March 17. The state mandated 14-day quarantines for travelers arriving from pandemic hotspots in the U.S. beginning on March 26 until all travel restrictions were lifted on May 21. Abbott initially decided against statewide shelter-in-place or stay-at-home orders due to the fact that more than 200 counties did not have any cases in mid-March. However, Abbott issued a de facto stay-at-home order on March 31, directing all Texans to remain at home unless conducting essential activities and services and to "minimize social gatherings and minimize in-person contact with people who are not in the same household." The order exempted places of worship as essential services (subject to social distancing), but Abbott still recommended that remote services be conducted instead. Abbott specifically avoided use of the terms "stay-at-home order" or "shelter-in-place" to describe the order, arguing that they were either misnomers (shelter-in-place usually referred to emergency situations) or did not adequately reflect the goal of the order.
Texas Historical Commission historical sites and state parks were closed beginning at 5 p.m. April 7, remaining closed until an executive order reopened them on April 20. The state government continued to relax regulations regarding medical protocols through April. Pharmacy technicians were authorized to accept over-the-phone prescription drug orders beginning on April 7 and telehealth services were authorized across a broad range of telecommunication media. Local emergency medical service providers were allowed to utilize qualified individuals without formal certification. Similar training requirements were waived for other medical fields. On May 20, The Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Speaker of the House released a letter detailing a plan to reduce the budget of many state agencies by 5 percent as part of the state's preparation for COVID-19's economic impact.
Initial reopening efforts
Between May and June 2020, the Texas state government began loosening restrictions on businesses and activities in a series of phases amid the pandemic, allowing businesses to reopen and operate with increasing capacity. Texas was one of the first states to publicize a timetable for lifting restrictions and the underlying plan was one of the most expansive in the country for reopening businesses. It began with Phase I on May 1 and continued through Phase III on June 3.Beginning of May through June 2020, Governor Abbott decided to start plans to reopen public places to community like the beach in Port Aransas and other places. This loosened restriction through many business and led to a spike in positive case of COVID-19 with 30,000 cases and surging to 50,000 during Memorial weekend. Abbott suspended the reopening process on June 25 following a rapid increase of COVID-19 cases 113 days after the first case was confirmed in Texas.
On March 23, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick made controversial statements on the Fox News show Tucker Carlson Tonight, saying that "as a senior citizen", he was "willing to take a chance on [his] survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for [his] children and grandchildren," later suggesting that grandparents in the country would do the same and advocating that the U.S. "get back to work." As Patrick appeared to insinuate lives were worth sacrificing for the health of the economy, his comments drew criticism on Twitter, where the hashtag #NotDying4WallStreet trended. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo commented on Twitter that "no one should be talking about social darwinism for the sake of the stock market." The editorial board of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram characterized Patrick's comments as "morbid" and a "recipe for embarrassing Texas". On April 7, roughly a month after the first non-evacuee case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Texas, Patrick created a task force to plan out the recovery of the Texas economy should businesses and industries reopen. Two days later, Abbott stated that his administration was "working on very aggressive strategies to make sure Texas [was] first at getting back to work." On April 17, Abbott began the process of reopening the Texas economy, establishing the Strike Force To Open Texas in an executive order to "study and make recommendations... for revitalizing the Texas economy". The team includes state leaders, medical experts, and a business advisory group; all consulting members were members of the Republican Party. Abbott issued two additional executive orders relaxing COVID-19 restrictions: executive order GA-15 permitted licensed health care professionals and facilities to carry out elective medical procedures if they did not interfere with capacity provisioned for COVID-19, while executive order GA-16 allowed retail stores to deliver goods to customers beginning on April 24 as part of a "Retail-To-Go" model. State parks were also ordered to reopen with COVID-19 regulations on April 20.