The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Virginia
- Level
- State
- Authority
- Va. Exec. Order No. 60 (Apr. 28, 2020)
- Issued
- 2020-04-28 Apr. 28, 2020
- Effective
- 2020-04-28
- End
- 'effective until the expiration of Executive Order 51 unless sooner amended or rescinded' (EO 51 lapsed June 30, 2021). (read as 2021-06-30)
- In force
- Apr. 28, 2020 to June 30, 2021
- Quarters
- 2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q2
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Health care ordersOperating condition
- Addressees
- specified businesses: health care providers (hospitals, surgical centers, endoscopy centers, physicians' and dental offices, and other providers responding to the disaster)
- Character
- liability shield condition
- Collection
- Standing duties: Virginia DUT-VA
Operative words
'Responds to a disaster' includes but is not limited to, pursuant to Order of Public Health Emergency Two as amended, temporary withholding of the provision of procedures, consultations or surgeries... that require PPE, the delay of which was not anticipated to cause harm to the patient
Penalty
None; a conditioned immunity tied to compliance with the Commissioner's order and to disaster-caused resource shortages
What it required
Declared COVID-19 a 'communicable disease of public health threat' and a 'disaster' under section 44-146.16, and read the standing health-care-provider immunities of sections 8.01-225.01 and 8.01-225.02 (which run only 'in the absence of gross negligence or willful misconduct' and only where 'the emergency and subsequent conditions caused a lack of resources, attributable to the disaster') to cover providers who complied with Order of Public Health Emergency Two by withholding elective procedures, and to treat PPE, ventilator, drug and staffing shortages and crisis-standards triage as the qualifying 'lack of resources.'
Retrieval noteRetrieved as the Wayback Machine's raw capture of April 29, 2020 (the Governor's site no longer serves the file). The order's premise is the withholding of procedures 'pursuant to Order of Public Health Emergency Two' (Ex. VA-005): the immunity attaches to conduct the Commissioner's order compelled. Paragraph 5 preserves all other immunities.