Government fails to agree on mandatory investigation – “better times await”

“We are postponing this issue until better times and moving on to other items on the agenda,” Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė said.

The Government has considered amendments proposing to establish the Government’s right to establish a list of jobs and areas of activity in which workers who have been further screened for a communicable disease are allowed to work. It is also anticipated that additional medical examinations of employees due to a communicable disease could be funded from the state budget.

It is also proposed to supplement the Communicable Diseases Prevention and Control Act with the provision that persons suspected of having been exposed must be subjected to the necessary examination if they refuse or evade the examination and thus endanger the health of others.

Foreign Minister Gabriel Landsbergis opposed this provision.

“Explain what you mean by the word ‘forced’ because it is without human consent. Is there no constitutional contradiction here? I understand that if it is mandatory – a person cannot return to work, cannot work, the company cannot open – it is an obligation, I understand it perfectly, ”said the Minister, emphasizing that he will vote against such a proposal.

After this statement, I. Šimonytė announced that the matter was postponed.

All the changes

The document that modifies the Law on Prevention and Control of Communicable Diseases of the Republic of Lithuania presented by the Ministry of Health (SAM) explains that it is proposed to clearly establish the right of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania to additionally determine a status – it is stated level emergency and / or quarantine.

It is also established that these costs may be financed from the State budget in accordance with the procedure established by the Government or paid by the employer and contemplate the possibility of carrying out the necessary examination of the persons suspected of being in contact and the carriers during the outbreak without consent.

The bill proposes:

1) Complement the provision by granting the Government the right to additionally provide jobs and areas of activity in which employees who have been additionally examined to detect a contagious disease for which an emergency or quarantine is declared at the state level are allowed to work. ;

2) Complement the provision that health examinations of employees due to a contagious disease for which a state emergency and / or quarantine has been declared can be financed from the state budget in accordance with the procedure established by the Government or paid by the employer. ;

3) complement with an exception, providing the possibility of conducting the necessary examination of persons suspected of being ill and having been exposed during the outbreak without consent;

4) add that persons suspected of having dangerous or particularly dangerous communicable diseases, persons who have been in contact or carriers of these pathogens are subject to the necessary examination if an outbreak of a communicable disease is detected when examination is required, and refuse or avoid examination and thereby endanger the health of others. The necessary investigation is ordered by an official of the National Center of Public Health who investigates the outbreak and is organized by the director of the municipal administration;

5) provide that the procedure for organizing the necessary examination of persons suspected of being ill who have been in contact and carriers of pathogens during an outbreak shall be established by the Minister of Health.

This amendment to the law was expected to go before the Seimas on Wednesday, the first day of the spring session.