CONSCIOUS OF PROTECTING COMMUNITY AND LEGAL CONSEQUENCE
On March 6, 2020, after an emergency meeting in the middle of the night of the Hanoi People's Committee announced the 17th Covid-19 case in Vietnam (after 23 days no new cases were recorded), it was also the first case in Hanoi. The patient, N.H.N, 26, residing in Truc Bach, Ba Dinh, Hanoi, returned from England and "passed the quarantine round" at the airport by dishonestly declaring the transport schedule leading to this patient and all passengers on flight VN0054 are not isolated in time.
(Collection)
This resulted in many difficulties in the disease control because passengers traveling with VN0054 - people at high risk of Covid -19 infection, have moved to many places and contacted people around them. Immediately, the epidemic control committee asked to make a list of zoned and isolated places where people have had direct / indirect contact with patient No. 17 and in case of necessity to take samples for testing.
In addition to the case of patient No. 17, there are still other cases of direct / indirect contact with the patient, returning from the epidemic area to acts of escaping from quarantine. Specifically, as two cases below:
“Ms. B.V.A (born in 1996 - Ha Nam) is a person who came back from Japan, under the management and medical isolation at home. However, she and her husband moved to Ba Ria - Vung Tau to escape medical isolation. Local authorities then conducted isolation and medical supervision for her and her husband.”
“Mr. L.T.H - Chairman of the Board of Wind Power Company in Quang Tri province, who is in need of isolation for medical supervision. However, he has swapped for staff to replace him in medical isolation. After the authorities applied the drastic measures, Mr. H presented himself for isolation.”
(Collection)
Up to the present time, the fraudulently reporting the number of contacts (F1) of patient 34 is probably the most reprehensible and deserving of condemnation because this case does not only stop at the fraudulent declaration of travel schedules upon entry and evading quarantine health. On March 10, 2020, after receiving the positive result of covid-19 of patient No. 34, Binh Thuan authorities collected information of people who had direct / indirect contact with the patient. Accordingly, patient No. 34 has reported that after coming to Vietnam, she went straight home and did not contact anyone, the number of people exposed to the patient was 17. However, in fact, she has stayed in Ho Chi Minh City to meet with her partner, and she also goes to many places to eat and drink in Binh Thuan province, bringing the total number of people in contact with this patient at the present time is 46 people. Authorities said the patient's dripping notification made medical zoning and isolation extremely difficult and confusing for people living around.
(Collection)
These are acts of lack of awareness, demonstrate irresponsibility to oneself and responsibility to protect the community against an extremely dangerous pandemic. In most cases, when people are found out, people who commit such acts will receive a lot of criticism from people around them, especially the online community. However, that is just an "honor sentence" that comes from the online community and everyone around.
According to DTD, from a legal perspective, Covid-19 is now belonging to Group A infectious disease - "including extremely dangerous infectious diseases that are capable of rapid transmission, widespread dispersion and high mortality or unknown pathogen ” (Point a, Clause 1, Article 3 of the Law on Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases 2007), is also considered a "pandemic" worldwide as the WHO has announced. Therefore, according to the provisions of Clause 2, Article 10 of Decree No. 176/2013 / ND-CP:
“2. Any of the following violations shall carry a fine of from 5,000,000 VND to 10,000,000 VND:
b) Refusing to or avoiding keeping sufferers of group A diseases, the subjects in quarantine that carry group A diseases or pathogens of group A diseases.”
On the other hand, in the case of acts of cheating, escaping from isolation, medical coercion leading to the consequences of spreading dangerous epidemics to other people, they may be fined or imprisoned according to the seriousness of their violations as prescribed in Article 240 of the 2015 Criminal Code:
1. A person who commits any of the following acts that spread dangerous infectious diseases in human shall be liable to a fine of from VND 50,000,000 to VND 200,000,000 or face a penalty of 01 - 05 years' imprisonment:
a) Bringing or allowing another entity to bring animals, plants or products thereof or other items that are likely to transmit dangerous infectious diseases in human out of the epidemic zone, unless otherwise prescribed by law;
b) Bringing or allowing another entity to bring animals, plants or products thereof or other products that are infected or carry dangerous pathogens that are likely to be transmitted to human into Vietnam’s territory;
c) Other acts that spread dangerous infections in human.
2. This offence committed in any of the following circumstances carries a penalty of 05 - 10 years' imprisonment:
a) The offence results in a declaration of an epidemic by the President of the People’s Committee of a province or the Minister of Health;
b) The offence results in the death of a person.
3. This offence committed in any of the following circumstances carries a penalty of 10 - 12 years' imprisonment:
a) The offence results in a declaration of an epidemic by the Prime Minister;
b) The offence results in the death of 02 or more people.
From these bases, it can be seen that people who commit fraud, evasion, isolation and medical coercion will receive a significant penalty before the law when the maximum imprisonment penalty is up to 12 years - within the range of very serious crime.
All of the above analysis is DTD's point of view from a legal perspective on acts that do not consciously protect the community from a dangerous pandemic like Covid-19. This pandemic not only threatens human life but also significantly affects the economy of the country and the world. Specific evidence is that now our Government is having to send all pupils and students out of school to avoid the epidemic, therefore many private teachers have no income for a long time; "fallen" tourism industry; businesses in other fields also "exhausted" because of reduced trade, even closed to avoid epidemics. Therefore, DTD wishes everyone together to raise their awareness to protect the community, strictly follow the regulations and guidelines of the Ministry of Health, the Party and the State to protect themselves and protect people around, join hands to repel Covid-19, bring our country back to a normal rhythm of life.
