Amends TCA Title 68, Chapter 2, Part 6.

ON MARCH 17, 2022, THE SENATE ADOPTED AMENDMENT #1 AND PASSED SENATE BILL 2409, AS AMENDED. AMENDMENT #1 rewrites this bill and revises present law provisions governing county health departments. Generally, this amendment restores certain provisions of law to the version that they were prior to Chapter 4 of the Public Acts of 2021 (3rd Ex. Sess.) and revises certain of the provisions enacted by Chapter 4, as follows: (1) Present law authorizes the commissioner of health to appoint a county health officer responsible for providing medical direction including medical enforcement actions with the approval of the commissioner or the county mayor. This amendment removes the requirement for the approval of the commission or the county mayor, which was added by Chapter 4; (2) This amendment authorizes county health officers to order rules as are necessary or appropriate to protect the general health and safety of the county. This authorization existed prior to Chapter 4 and was deleted by the act. This amendment does make such authorization subject to present law provisions governing COVID; and (3) Under present law, enacted by Chapter 4, for the purposes of effectively mitigating the impact of a pandemic, upon declaration of a pandemic by the world health organization and a subsequent declaration of a state of emergency by the governor indicating that the pandemic impacts this state, and until such pandemic ceases to exist, the governor has exclusive jurisdiction to issue executive orders and directives with respect to each county health department in this state. This amendment specifies that the orders and directives must be "related to the pandemic."