State health officer; duties

(a) The position of state health officer is created. The Governor may appoint the commissioner of public health to serve simultaneously as the state health officer or may appoint another individual to serve as state health officer. Such officer shall serve at the pleasure of the Governor. An individual appointed to serve as state health officer shall be licensed to practice medicine in this state. (b) The state health officer shall: (1) Perform such health emergency preparedness and response duties as assigned by the Governor; and (2) Be authorized to issue a standing order prescribing an opioid antagonist, as such term is defined in Code Section 26-4-116.2, on a state-wide basis under conditions that he or she determines to be in the best interest of this state. History. — Code 1981, § 31-1-10, enacted by Ga. L. 2009, p. 453, § 1-3/HB 228; Ga. L. 2011, p. 705, § 3-6/HB 214; Ga. L. 2017, p. 22, § 5/SB 121; Ga. L. 2017, p. 319, § 3-2/HB 249. The 2017 amendments. — The first 2017 amendment, effective May 18, 2017, added the fourth sentence of subsection (a), and substituted the present provisions of subsection (b) for the former provisions, which read: ‘‘The state health officer shall perform such health emergency preparedness and response duties as assigned by the Governor.’’ The second 2017 amendment, effective July 1, 2017, made identical changes. Editor’s notes. — Ga. L. 2017, p. 22, § 1/SB 121, not codified by the General Assembly, provides that: ‘‘This Act shall be known and may be cited as the ‘Jeffrey Dallas Gay, Jr., Act.’ ’’