State health leaders, public health experts and hospital officials warn that an abrupt change in how the Trump administration requires them to report coronavirus data will increase the burden on facilities already strained by the pandemic and could impede the distribution of critical medicines.

The opposition came after the Department of Health and Human Services notified governors and hospital leaders this week that it was changing the protocol for sending the federal government daily information about coronavirus patients, supplies and bed capacity. Administration officials say that replacing a data-collection system run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would streamline reporting and lead to more efficient distribution of therapeutics, testing supplies and protective gear.

Officials also suggested that states might want to get the National Guard to assist hospitals — an idea the industry has condemned.

Until Wednesday, Texas hospitals sent to the state all coronavirus data requested by state health officials and the federal government, and the state forwarded it to Washington. Suddenly, with the federal requirements expanded, hospitals must return to sending data separately to both places.

The new rules took effect Wednesday and will determine the allocation starting next week of critical supplies from the federal government, including protective gear and remdesivir, an antiviral medication that is one of the only approved treatments for covid-19 patients. Senior HHS officials contended Wednesday that the switch was made with the agreement of the CDC, which no longer is a recipient of the information.

Critics, however, say they fear the elimination of the CDC’s role as a main data-keeper for the pandemic will be damaging, depriving states, hospitals and others of frequent analyses of data about the virus’s path in their communities. Smaller hospitals, in particular, are ill-equipped to suddenly adopt new data methods, critics said, though the industry has pledged to comply with the change.