The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Oklahoma
- Level
- State
- Authority
- Laws 2020, SB 300, c. 12, sec. 1, emerg. eff. May 12, 2020; codified at 63 O.S. 6406 within the Catastrophic Health Emergency Powers Act chapter
- Issued
- 2020-05-12 May 12, 2020
- Effective
- 2020-05-12
- End
- 'until October 31, 2020, or until such time as the Governor affirmatively concludes the emergency declarations specified in paragraph 1 of subsection B of this section, whichever is later' (the emergency was withdrawn effective May 4, 2021, Ex. OK-041) (read as 2020-10-31)
- In force
- May 12, 2020 to Oct. 31, 2020
- Quarters
- 2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q2
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Emergency declarationHealth care ordersOperating condition
- Addressees
- health care facilities and health care providers as defined in 63 O.S. 6104
- Character
- liability shield condition
- Collection
- Standing duties: Oklahoma DUT-OK
Operative words
A health care facility or health care provider shall be immune from civil liability... if: 1. The act or omission occurred in the course of arranging for or providing COVID-19 health care services... in response to or as a result of the COVID-19 public health emergency; and 2. The act or omission was not the result of gross negligence or willful or wanton misconduct
Penalty
Loss of immunity (gross negligence, willful or wanton misconduct; non-COVID patients)
What it required
Health care facilities and providers were immune only for acts and omissions in COVID-19 care taken 'in response to or as a result of the COVID-19 public health emergency', a term the Legislature defined as the emergencies declared by EO 2020-07 under the Emergency Management Act 'beginning on March 15, 2020' and by EO 2020-13 under the Catastrophic Health Emergency Powers Act 'beginning on April 8, 2020'; the condition is the emergency response, not compliance with guidance, and is recorded as such; subsection D withholds immunity for care of persons without a suspected or confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis.
Retrieval noteThe Legislature's own description of the emergency chain, enacted May 12, 2020, is a legislative recognition that the Governor's orders from March 15, 2020 were the operative legal regime. The staffing, space and equipment decisions the Act protects ('the decisions, activities or staffing of, or the availability or capacity of space or equipment by, the health care facility or provider in response to... the COVID-19 public health emergency') are the compelled modifications of health-care operations the memoranda plead for IND health care.