Texas Tribune Brief

Families and advocates for nursing home residents are calling on Texas officials to release the numbers and names of facilities where coronavirus infection has been reported, as other states have done.

The physician and nursing home medical director who prescribed the drug is a campaign surrogate for President Donald Trump.

The Labor Department has urged employers to “be judicious” in exempting their workers. Critics say the exemption hurts nurses and doctors, who have already complained about their lack of protective equipment.

Gov. Greg Abbott promised that all those who need a coronavirus test “will get one,” but near the border tests are scarce, and the death toll is beginning to rise.

With elective procedures canceled, hospitals are reassigning staff. But even the best-laid plans may go awry if clinicians themselves fall ill in large numbers.

With schools closed statewide to halt the spread of the new coronavirus, hourly workers like custodians and bus drivers worry how long their paychecks will keep coming. Substitute teachers aren't finding paid work at all.

That timeline, which could be extended later, was established in an executive order Tuesday.

Abbott's order bans release without paying bail for inmates who are accused of or have been convicted in the past of violent offenses. Defendants with cash could still walk free.

With Gov. Greg Abbott resisting calls for a statewide stay-at-home order, local officials are tasked with deciding which businesses and employees are essential.

The Texas Public Utility Commission approved an order Thursday that would ban disconnections of water and power service for Texans financially impacted by COVID-19 and put them on deferred payment plans. But advocates and experts say the real winner might be utility providers.