Bill Text: WV HB3138 | 2021 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: To update the requirements of the state director of health to quarantine and enforce regulations in a specific place
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 6-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2021-03-15 - To House Health and Human Resources [HB3138 Detail]
Download: West_Virginia-2021-HB3138-Introduced.html
WEST virginia legislature
2021 regular session
Introduced
House Bill 3138
By Delegates Foster, Riley, Paynter, Phillips, Steele and McGeehan
[Introduced March 15, 2021; Referred to the Committee on Health and Human Resources then the Judiciary]
A BILL to amend and reenact §16-3-1, §16-3-2, and §16-3-3 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, all relating to authority and powers of the state director of health; removing the director’s ability to arrest and detain persons; removing the conditions requiring the county or municipality to pay expenses relating to communicable diseases; removing the penalties for violations; and establishing penalties for persons who fail to stop to have goods inspected for communicable diseases.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
Article 3. Prevention and control of communicable and other infectious diseases.
§16-3-1. State director of health authority to quarantine and to enforce regulations; state board of health Should this be Secretary of the Department of Health and Should this be Secretary of the Department of Health and Should this be Secretary of the Department of Health and authority to issue regulations to control infectious or contagious diseases.
The state director of
health is empowered to establish and strictly maintain quarantine at such
places as he or she may deem proper and forbid and prevent the
assembling of the people in any specific place, when the state director
of health or any county or municipal health officer deems that the public
health and safety so demand, and the state board of health Should this be
Secretary of the Department of Health and Should this be Secretary of the
Department of Health and Should this be Secretary of the Department of Health
and may adopt rules and regulations to obstruct and prevent the introduction or
spread of smallpox or other communicable or infectious diseases into or within
the state. and the state director of health shall have the power to enforce
these regulations by detention and arrest, if necessary The state director
of health shall have power to enter into any town, city, factory, railroad
train, steamboat or other place whatsoever, and enter upon and inspect private
property for the purpose of investigating the sanitary and hygienic conditions
and the presence of cases of infectious diseases, and may, at his or her
discretion, take charge of any epidemic or endemic conditions, and enforce such
regulations as the state board of health Should this be Secretary of the
Department of Health and Should this be Secretary of the Department of Health
and Should this be Secretary of the Department of Health and may prescribe. All
expenses incurred in controlling any endemic or epidemic conditions shall be
paid by the county or municipality in which such epidemic occurs
§16-3-2. Powers of county and municipal boards of health to establish quarantine; penalty for violation.
The county board of health
of any county may declare quarantine therein, or in any particular district or
place therein, whenever in their judgment it is necessary to prevent the spread
of any communicable or infectious disease prevalent therein, or to prevent the
introduction of any communicable or infectious disease prevailing in any other
state, county or place, and of any and all persons and things likely to spread
such infection. As soon as such quarantine is established such board shall, in
writing, inform the director of health thereof, the duty of whom it shall be to
ascertain, as soon as practicable, the necessity therefor, if any exists, and
if the state director of health finds that no such necessity exists, the same
shall, by the said director, be declared raised. The said county board of
health shall have power and authority to enforce such quarantine until the same
is raised as aforesaid, or by themselves, and may confine any such infected
person, or any person liable to spread such infection, to the house or premises
in which he or she resides, or if he or she has no residence in
the county, at a place to be provided by them for the purpose; and if it shall
become necessary to do so, they shall summon sufficient guard for the
enforcement of their orders in the premises. Every person who shall fail or
refuse to comply with any order made by such board under this section, and
every person summoned as such guard who shall, without a lawful excuse, fail or
refuse to obey the orders and directions of such board in enforcing said
quarantine, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof,
shall be fined not less than twenty-five nor more than $200 In cases of
emergency or actual necessity, and when the county commission or corporate
authorities are from any cause unable to meet or to provide for the emergency
or the necessity of the case all actual expenditures necessary for local and
county quarantine, as provided for in this section, shall be certified by the
county board of health to the county commission, and the whole, or as much
thereof as the said commission may deem right and proper, shall be paid out of
the county treasury The board of health of any city, town or village shall
have, within the municipality, the same powers and perform the same duties
herein conferred upon and required of the county board of health in their
county. So far as applicable the provisions of this section shall apply to any
quarantine established and maintained by the state director of health pursuant
to section one of this article.
§16-3-3. Communicable diseases on vessels or trains; offenses; penalty.
The state department of
health, its agents and employees, and the local boards of health, in the
absence of the state department, its agents and employees, when they have
reason to believe that any steamboat or other watercraft navigating the Ohio
river or its tributaries in this state, or any other of the waters of the
state, or bordering thereon, is infected with any communicable disease, may
prevent the landing of such boat or craft at any point in this state. They may
also, if they have reason to believe that any railroad train, coach or other
vehicle passing on or along any railroad in this state, contains any person
having a communicable disease or any thing infected with contagious matter,
detain such train, coach or vehicle at any station or point on such railroad
where it can be done with safety, for a time sufficient to examine the same,
and if found to be so infected, for a time sufficient to disinfect the same;
and if the conductor or person in charge of such train, coach or vehicle, shall
willfully fail or refuse to stop the said train, coach or vehicle for the time
aforesaid, he or she shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, punished
as prescribed in section two of this article upon conviction thereof,
shall be fined not less than $25 nor more than $200.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to update the requirements of the state director of health to quarantine and enforce regulations in a specific place, removing certain penalties, and establishing other penalties for failing to stop a train or other vessel for inspections.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.
