Brazil, like many other countries, has been adopting measures to minimize the spread of the new coronavirus.
Law No. 13.979/20 was recently published, establishing measures to address the public health emergency of international importance resulting from the coronavirus responsible for the 2019 outbreak.
Article 3 of the aforementioned law authorizes the State, in dealing with the public health emergency, to adopt the following measures:
Isolation;
Quarantine;
(III) Determination of compulsory laboratory tests, vaccinations, among others; and
(IV) Exceptional and temporary restriction on entry and exit from the country, and interstate and intermunicipal movement.
Furthermore, in § 4 of the same article, it is determined that people must comply with the measures provided for in that article, and failure to comply with them will result in liability, under the terms provided for by law.
Such liability is defined in Interministerial Ordinance No. 5 of March 17, 2020, which provides that failure to comply with the measures provided for in Article 3 of Law No. 13.979 of 2020 will result in civil, administrative and criminal liability for the offending agents.
In addition, the Ordinance provides that the following penalties may be applied to those who do not comply with the law: violation of preventive health measures, provided for in art. 268 of the Penal Code, and disobedience, provided for in art. 330 of the Penal Code.
The violation of preventive health measures, provided for in article 268 of the Penal Code, mentioned in the paragraph above, consists of the conduct of violating a determination of the public authority intended to prevent the introduction and spread of a contagious disease, with the penalty of imprisonment of 1 month to 1 year, and a fine.
Article 5 of Law No. 13.979/20 also determines that all people must collaborate with health authorities in immediately reporting possible contact with infectious agents of COVID-19.
In this sense, article 269 of the Penal Code provides that failure to report a disease also constitutes a crime against public health, consisting of the conduct of a doctor who fails to report a disease whose notification is compulsory to the public authority, punishable by imprisonment of 6 months to 2 years and a fine.
Furthermore, defined in Article 131 of the Penal Code, the crime of endangering the spread of a serious illness consists of committing, with the purpose of transmitting a serious illness to another person with whom one is infected, an act capable of producing the infection. The crime is punishable by imprisonment of one to four years and a fine.
Finally, as provided for in Article 135-A of the Penal Code, conditioning emergency medical care also constitutes a crime. This involves demanding a security check, promissory note, or any other form of guarantee, as well as the prior completion of administrative forms, as a condition for emergency medical care. This crime is punishable by imprisonment of three months to one year and a fine.
