News

In order to further guide all localities in the prevention and control of novel coronavirus pneumonia, on June 28, the joint prevention and control mechanism of the State Council released the latest prevention and control plan for novel coronavirus pneumonia. This is the Ninth Edition released since the epidemic prevention and control. Compared with the eighth edition of the COVID-19 prevention and control plan, the ninth edition of the prevention and control plan has revised the isolation management of risk personnel, the delimitation standards of medium and high risk areas, and the epidemic monitoring according to the characteristics of the Omicron mutant according to time and circumstances, so as to further improve the scientificity and accuracy of the epidemic prevention and control.

(picture from the network)

Isolation measures, as an important part of epidemic prevention in China, are widely concerned because they are related to the basic right of citizens' personal freedom. This paper intends to make a preliminary discussion on the legal issues involved in the prevention and control measures of isolation during the epidemic period.

First of all, the segregation policy has a legal attribute because it has different degrees of restrictions on personal freedom. The common practice is to restrict the personnel with certain risk transmission to specific places, restrict their activities and certain personal freedom, so as to block the spread of danger and achieve the purpose of protecting public interest and safety and other isolation. In the COVID-19, isolation is manifested in the isolation of specific populations for the sake of public health safety and to stop the spread of novel coronavirus, so as to achieve the purpose of prevention, treatment and protection of public interests.

Secondly, as an important part of the prevention and control measures, the isolation policy needs the support of corresponding legislation. According to Article 39 of the law on the prevention and control of infectious diseases: "when a medical institution finds a Class A infectious disease, it shall take the following measures in time: (1) isolate the patient and pathogen carrier for treatment, and the isolation period shall be determined according to the results of medical examination; (2) isolate the suspected patient in a designated place before diagnosis; (3) Medical observation and other necessary preventive measures shall be taken at designated places for patients, pathogen carriers and close contacts of suspected patients in medical institutions. If a person refuses isolation treatment or leaves isolation treatment without authorization before the expiration of the isolation period, the public security organ may assist the medical institution in taking compulsory isolation treatment measures. When a medical institution finds a patient with a class B or class C infectious disease, it shall take necessary treatment and control measures according to the condition of the patient. " And Article 41, paragraph 1: "The local people's government at or above the county level in the place where a Class A infectious disease case has occurred or in a specific area of the place where the person is located may implement isolation measures and report to the people's government at the next higher level at the same time; the people's government at a higher level that receives the report shall immediately make a decision on whether to approve it. If the people's government at a higher level makes a decision not to approve it, the people's government that implemented the isolation measures shall immediately lift the isolation measures." It is stipulated that Chinese medicine treatment institutions and local people's governments at or above the county level may take necessary isolation measures against relevant personnel involved in infectious diseases in the COVID-19.

Thirdly, there are two main ways of isolation in China, namely, home isolation and centralized isolation. Regardless of the isolation method, according to the provisions of the administrative enforcement law: "in order to control the expansion of the danger, the administrative organs impose temporary restrictions on the personal freedom of citizens according to law, which are administrative coercive measures.", So its essence is a kind of administrative coercive measure to restrict personal freedom. For medical institutions, although the law on the prevention and control of infectious diseases gives them the power to isolate patients, for non suspected or non close contacts, the medical institutions themselves do not have administrative powers, so the exercise of power is more the function of the public security and other relevant departments.

According to the provisions of the law on the prevention and control of infectious diseases, the public health administrative departments of the local people's governments at or above the county level are responsible for the prevention and control of infectious diseases and their supervision and management within their respective administrative areas, and other departments of the people's governments at or above the county level are responsible for the prevention and control of infectious diseases within their respective functions and responsibilities; Disease prevention and control institutions at all levels shall undertake infectious disease monitoring, prediction, epidemiological investigation, epidemic situation report and other prevention and control work; Medical institutions shall undertake the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases related to medical treatment and the prevention of infectious diseases within their areas of responsibility; Under the guidance of disease prevention and control institutions, urban communities and rural grass-roots medical institutions undertake the corresponding prevention and control of infectious diseases in urban communities and rural grass-roots. Meanwhile, according to the regulations on public health emergencies, the emergency response headquarters can evacuate or isolate personnel when necessary. It can be seen that in the sudden outbreak of COVID-19, local people's governments, health administrative departments, emergency response headquarters and other relevant departments can take isolation prevention and control measures. Multiple departments have corresponding functions and powers. It is necessary to further clarify the distribution of functions and powers among multiple authorized subjects, clarify which department or institution is the actual implementation subject of the isolation measures, and avoid conflicts and contradictions in practice. It is necessary to establish communication, complaint and supervision channels between the isolation object and the administrative organ taking the isolation measures, so as to ensure that the problems encountered in the isolation process can be reported in time and properly solved.

Finally, the author believes that the more appropriate "isolation" measures can be selected at the least cost in line with the principle of "conducive to public health security", and modern scientific and technological means can be used to regulate from both substantive and procedural aspects. In the aspect of entity regulation, establish the implementation standard of danger; In terms of procedure, it regulates the decision of isolation, implementation, relief, protection and the rights of the parties, so as to achieve the balance between public interests and individual rights.

Under the heavy blow of the COVID-19, China has taken efficient, powerful and organized prevention and control measures and response measures, which have achieved extremely significant results, making every citizen truly feel a sense of security and gain. The specific implementation of isolation measures still needs to be continuously improved and strengthened, such as the determination of the scope of isolation objects, the law enforcement subjects implementing compulsory isolation, the setting of isolation procedures, the connection between the implementation of compulsory force guarantee, and the protection of the rights and interests of the opposite party, which need to be further improved, clarified and detailed.