The disease is gone and the fines come

Muscovite Elena Bychkova received fines for violation of quarantine totaling more than 70 thousand rubles. On April 3, she was diagnosed with COVID-19, and the woman was treated at home for a month. During this time, in her own words, she only left the apartment once to undergo computed tomography (CT).

According to Bychkova, she was given an order to stay at home permanently, but no one explained that it was necessary to install the Social Monitoring application and how to use it.

This is a program designed for patients with COVID-19 and acute respiratory viral infections who are treated at home. Through it, patients report good faith quarantine.

When registering in the application, the user must confirm the phone number, take a photo and share the geolocation. In the future, at a random time the patient receives push notifications requesting additional confirmation that he is at home. After receiving the alert, the patient should immediately take a confirmation selfie.

“I only went out once, when they called me to the polyclinic to have a CT scan, for which I received a fine. Then I installed the Social Monitoring application, because these notifications constantly came. The first photo was uploaded, and the next 3 days the application did not work, the photos were not sent. During this time, they sent me another 8 fines, ”says RT Elena.

Meanwhile, after the closure of the sick-list, Bychkova continued to receive SMS stating that she was violating the decision on self-isolation, and then fines.  

“I call and write everywhere, and there is no result. I don’t know who else to contact me to cancel fines and not send new ones, ”the woman sighs.

However, she claims that the diagnosis has changed in her electronic map.

“Now it appears on my card that I had ARVI, and the diagnosis of COVID-19 has disappeared,” Elena wonders.

Consider it a mistake

A similar case occurred with Maria Katashova. She recovered on April 28, but she still receives fines, the total amount of which has already exceeded 40 thousand rubles.

According to Katashova, she spent all the time at home, with the exception of April 14, when she was taken in an ambulance to do a CT scan. At the same time, she clarifies that when she did a CT scan, they still hadn’t been given a decision on her hands.

“On April 28th it was all over, I recovered, and on April 30th I received several fines in the mail. In total, I was issued 10 fines. I look at the dates and don’t understand, I didn’t go anywhere these days, why did they decide that I was leaving the house, ”says RT Katashova.

According to Maria, she installed the application, but she did not know what to do with it.

“It was written,“ Social Monitoring ”to install, well, we installed. At the time of registration, we photographed faces, signed everything. Nobody spoke about the fact that some notifications should come and they need to respond, ”the woman says.

According to her, notifications came after the illness had passed and all restrictions were lifted.

“Within 5 days after the end we received messages with the request to confirm the identification. I called tech support, they tell us, just consider it a mistake, and fines all come, ”says Maria.

Now Katashova is trying to appeal the penalties, she wanted to request a video from the surveillance cameras installed in the entrance to prove that she did not leave the house, but the records, according to her, were not preserved.

Lack of selfies is not a violation

The press service of the Moscow City Department of Information Technology (DITM) told RT that the fines received by women are related to the fact that they did not pass the identification in the application.

“When choosing to receive medical care at home, a patient with COVID-19 personally signs a consent, in which he undertakes, inter alia, to use the Social Monitoring service,” the press service noted.

The DITM notes that “if a citizen believes that the fine was issued by mistake, he can use the existing appeal mechanism.”

Attorney Oleg Pakhomov believes that such fines can be easily challenged in court - the main thing is not to miss the deadline during which the decision on the fine can be challenged.

“The fact that the monitoring system sent SMS does not mean that a fine was imposed. It is necessary to have a resolution on administrative violation in hand. When a person receives this decision in his hands, you can immediately go to appeal to the court, ”he said.

According to Pakhomov, in court, plaintiffs must provide real evidence that a person left the house in violation of quarantine. 

“It is necessary to prove that the person really left the house. The fact that they did not send a selfie is simply a violation of a certain agreement, possibly prescribed in the decree on observance of quarantine. You can violate this agreement, but this is not a violation of the administrative norm on observance of quarantine, ”the lawyer explains. - For example, we are forbidden to drive in a drunken state, but in order to prove it, we must send a person for examination. If he refuses, he is no longer punished for driving in a drunken state, but for refusing to be examined, this is a separate rule prescribed by law. ”

Earlier, several fines for quarantine violation were issued to the invalid of the first group, Irina Karabulatova, although she has not left home for a year after the operation. After the story got into the media, the Main Control Department of Moscow reported that a technical error had occurred and fines were canceled.