15104240D
SENATE BILL NO. 1143
AMENDMENT IN THE NATURE OF A SUBSTITUTE
(Proposed by the Senate Committee on Education and Health
on February 5, 2015)
(Patron Prior to Substitute--Senator Garrett)
A BILL to amend and reenact §32.1-48.08 of the Code of
Virginia, relating to the establishment of quarantine zones.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That §32.1-48.08 of the Code of Virginia is amended and
reenacted as follows:
§32.1-48.08. Declaration of quarantine.
A. The State Health Governor, at the request of the
Commissioner, may declare a quarantine of any person or persons or any
affected area after he finds that the quarantine is the necessary means to
contain a communicable disease of public health threat as defined in §
32.1-48.06 to which such person or persons or the people of an affected area
have been or may have been exposed and thus may become infected.
B. The State Health Commissioner shall record his
findings and any information on which he has relied in making the finding
required for quarantine pursuant to subsection A. The State Health
Commissioner's record of findings concerning any communicable disease of public
health threat shall be confidential and shall not be disclosed in accordance
with subdivision 17 of §2.2-3705.5.
C. The State Health Commissioner may order the
quarantined person or persons to remain in their residences, to remain in
another place where they are present, or to report to a place or places
designated by the State Health Commissioner for the duration of their
quarantine. An electronic device may be used to enforce any such quarantine.
The Commissioner's order of quarantine shall be for a duration consistent with
the known incubation period for such disease or, if the incubation period is
unknown, for a period anticipated as being consistent with the incubation
period for other similar infectious agents.
D. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Governor
is authorized to establish quarantine zones at any time when an individual
enters the Commonwealth where his point of origin is a foreign country in which
a communicable disease of public health threat, including the Ebola virus, has
caused the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue
a Level 3 Travel Health Notice. The Governor is authorized to direct the
Commissioner to declare a quarantine of any individual arriving from such
country who has been exposed or is reasonably believed to have been exposed to
such disease. A person held in a quarantine zone pursuant to this subsection
shall remain in the quarantine zone for a duration consistent with the known
incubation period for such disease or, if the incubation period is unknown, for
a period anticipated as being consistent with the incubation period for other
similar infectious agents.
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