In order to further guide local governments to do a good job in the prevention and control of new coronavirus pneumonia , on June 28, State Council Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism released the latest "New Coronavirus Pneumonia Prevention and Control Plan". This is the ninth edition released since the epidemic prevention and control. Compared with the eighth version of the new coronavirus pneumonia prevention and control plan, the ninth edition of the prevention and control plan has revised the isolation management of risk personnel, the standard for demarcation of medium and high-risk zones, and epidemic monitoring according to the times and situations, further improving the scientificity and accuracy of epidemic prevention and control.
(picture quoted from the Internet)
Isolation measures are an important part of my country's epidemic prevention. They have attracted widespread attention because of their basic power to personal freedom of citizens. This article intends to conduct a preliminary discussion on the legal issues involved in the prevention and control measures of quarantine during the epidemic period.
First of all, the isolation policy has legal attributes due to the different degrees of restrictions on personal freedom. is usually to limit people with certain dangers and dissemination to specific places, restrict their activities and certain personal freedoms, so as to block the spread of dangers and achieve the purpose of protecting public interests and other isolation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, isolation is manifested in the purpose of public health security and in order to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus, specific groups of people are isolated to achieve the purpose of preventing, treating and protecting the public interests.
Secondly, the isolation policy, as an important part of prevention and control measures, requires corresponding legislation to support it. According to Article 39 of the "Hyperact Law on Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases": "When a medical institution discovers a Class A infectious disease, it shall take the following measures in a timely manner: (1) Isolate and treat patients and pathogen carriers, and the isolation period shall be determined based on the results of medical examinations; (2) For suspected patients, separate isolation treatment shall be conducted in designated places before diagnosis; (3) For patients, pathogen carriers, and suspected patients in medical institutions, medical observation shall be carried out in designated places and other necessary preventive measures shall be taken. If the isolation treatment is refused or the isolation treatment is not completed or the isolation treatment is not authorized, the public security organ may assist the medical institution in taking the strong treatment with the help of the medical institution. Isolation and treatment measures are made. If a medical institution discovers a patient with a Class B or Class C infectious disease, it shall take necessary treatment and transmission control measures according to the condition. "And Article 41, Paragraph 1: "For places where a Class A infectious disease has occurred, the local people's government at or above the county level in the place may implement isolation measures and report to the higher-level people's government at the same time; the higher-level people's government that receives the report shall immediately make a decision on whether to approve it. If the higher-level people's government makes a decision not to approve the decision, the people's government that implements the isolation measures shall immediately lift the isolation measures." It stipulates that in the epidemic situation of the new crown pneumonia, medical institutions and local people's governments at or above the county level may take necessary isolation measures for relevant personnel involved in infectious diseases.
Again, there are two main ways to isolate in my country, namely: home isolation and centralized isolation. No matter what kind of isolation method is, according to the provisions of the " Administrative Compulsory Law ": "In order to control the expansion of danger, administrative agencies impose temporary restrictions on citizens' personal freedom in accordance with the law, it is an administrative compulsory measure ." Therefore, its essence is an administrative compulsory measure that restricts personal freedom. For medical institutions, although the "Law on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases" gives them the right to isolate patients, for non-suspected or non-close contacts, medical institutions themselves do not have the administrative power of , so exercising their power is more of the functions of public security and other relevant departments.
According to the provisions of the "Law on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases", local people's governments at or above the county level are responsible for infectious disease prevention and control and supervision and management within their administrative regions, and other departments of people's governments at or above the county level are responsible for infectious disease prevention and control within their respective responsibilities; disease prevention and control institutions at all levels are responsible for infectious disease monitoring, prediction, epidemiological investigation, epidemic reporting and other prevention and control work; medical institutions are responsible for infectious disease prevention and control work related to medical treatment and infectious disease prevention and control work in the responsible areas; urban communities and rural grassroots medical institutions are responsible for infectious disease prevention and control work in urban communities and rural grassroots under the guidance of disease prevention and control institutions. At the same time, according to the " Emergency Regulations on Public Health Emergency ", the emergency response command center may evacuate or quarantine personnel when necessary. It can be seen that in the sudden outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, local people's governments, health administrative departments, emergency response command centers and other relevant departments can take isolation prevention and control measures. Multiple departments have corresponding powers. It is necessary to further clarify the allocation of powers between multiple authorized subjects, clarify which department or organization is the actual implementing subject of the isolation measures, and avoid conflicts and contradictions in practice. It is necessary to establish communication, complaints and supervision channels between the isolation objects and the administrative agencies that take isolation measures to ensure that problems encountered during the isolation process can be reported in a timely manner and properly resolved.
Finally, the author believes that based on the principle of "benefiting public health safety", we can choose more appropriate "isolation" measures at the minimum cost, and use modern scientific and technological means to regulate from both entity and procedure. In terms of entity regulation, dangerous implementation standards are established; in terms of procedures, regulations are carried out around the decision of isolation, implementation, relief, protection, and the rights of the parties, so as to achieve a balance between public interests and individual rights.
Under the severe blow of the new crown epidemic, my country's efficient, powerful and organized prevention and control and response measures have achieved extremely significant results, allowing every citizen to truly experience a sense of security and gain. still needs to be continuously improved and strengthened in the specific implementation of isolation measures. For example, determining the scope of the isolation object, implementing the law enforcement subject for compulsory isolation, setting of isolation procedures and connection of compulsory guarantee implementation, and protecting the rights and interests of counterparty, etc., needs to be further improved, clarified and refined.
[1]Zhao Peng. Power and Law in Epidemic Prevention and Control——A Perspective of Application and Review of the "Law on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases" [J]. Law. 2020 (03)
[2]Zhang Kun. On the Improvement of Legal Provisions on "Isolation" Measures in Epidemic Prevention and Control .Shanghai Law Research. 2020 (01)
[3] Xie Kundong. Discussion on the legal issues of isolation measures in epidemic prevention and control
[4] Gan Ruowen. Legal regulations and improvements of mandatory isolation in major epidemic prevention and control - "Social Science Dynamics"
