Cairo -
Today, Tuesday, the Egyptian House of Representatives approved a draft law on confronting epidemics and health pandemics, which provides for the formation of a higher committee to manage the crisis of epidemics and health pandemics headed by the Prime Minister and grant it wide powers. It also approved penalties for one year in prison in addition to a fine of up to 20 A thousand pounds (about 1,300 dollars) for violators of the procedures to be issued by the Epidemiological Management Committee.
Among these measures is the obligation of citizens to take all precautionary measures and health precautions established by the health authorities, including wearing protective masks and receiving vaccinations.
It is scheduled that there will be multiple tasks for the Epidemiology and Health Pandemic Crisis Management Committee, and the new law has given it the freedom to take all measures to confront the epidemic, provided that they are presented to Parliament within a week of the announcement of these measures.
The law specified the period of validity of the decisions taken by the committee, which is 365 days.
Committee formation
The Supreme Committee for the Management of the Epidemic and Health Pandemic Crisis is formed under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister and the membership of the ministers specialized in health and population, justice, defense, interior, higher education, and education, as well as tourism, finance, local development, catering, internal trade, and social solidarity, and the head of the Egyptian Medicines Authority. and Chairman of the Egyptian Authority for Unified Procurement and Medical Supply and Management of Medical Technology.
The head of the committee may include whomever he deems fit in its membership, and the committee has the right to seek the assistance of experts and specialists.
The most important tasks of the committee
Putting restrictions for a specific period on the freedom of people to move, pass or be present at certain times, whether in specific areas or throughout the country, and oblige citizens to take all precautionary measures and health precautions established by the health authorities, including wearing protective masks and receiving vaccinations while in places specified or recurring.
Disrupting work for a specified period, partially or completely, and for a specified period, in ministries, government departments, agencies, local administration units, public authorities, public sector companies, public business sector companies, other state-owned companies, the private sector, and educational institutions.
Setting the dates for opening and closing public shops, and ordering their closure, all or some, while regulating or banning the reception of cinemas, theaters, exhibitions, cultural festivals and other cultural activities.
Regulating or prohibiting the reception of persons in places of worship and places attached to them, as well as sports and popular clubs, youth centers, gyms and health clubs.
Organizing or prohibiting public meetings, processions, demonstrations, celebrations and other forms of gathering, as well as private meetings.
Prohibiting or restricting the use of public transportation and public transportation owned by the private sector.
Postponing the payment of electricity, gas and water services, partially or completely, or in installments, and extending the deadlines for submitting tax returns, or extending the deadlines for the payment of all or some of the taxes due, for a period not exceeding 3 months, renewable for other similar periods. Additional tax, as the case may be, and the aforementioned extension periods are not included in calculating the prescription period for the tax due.
Establishing restrictions on the circulation, transfer, sale or possession of some commodities and products, with fixing their prices, and regulating or prohibiting the export of some of them outside the country.
Determining financial or in-kind support for the affected economic sectors, defining the rules for disbursing it to various establishments, companies and projects, and at the same time defining the method of collecting financial and in-kind donations to face the crisis, and the rules for allocating and spending these donations.
Determining treatment prices in private hospitals to prevent the exploitation of patients in the event of epidemics or health pandemics, imposing control over the work of scientific, research and laboratory laboratories with regard to dealing with biological materials, and tightening procedures on their possession, use and transfer, as well as on laboratory devices that are used in this, and determining disposal controls of waste and biological waste.
sanctions
Article 5 of the Law on Confronting Epidemics and Health Regulations stipulated several penalties for violators, bearing in mind that no more severe penalty stipulated in any other legislation in the Penal Code would be violated.
Anyone who violates any of the procedures or measures issued by the committee or the decisions issued for its implementation, in accordance with the provisions of this law, shall be punished by imprisonment and a fine not exceeding 20,000 pounds, or by one of these two penalties.
Anyone who incites to violate any of the procedures or measures issued by the committee or the decisions issued for its implementation in accordance with the provisions of this law shall be punished by imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year and a fine not exceeding 10,000 pounds, or by one of these two penalties.
Whoever deliberately broadcasts, publishes or promotes false or malicious rumors related to the epidemiological situation, and that would disturb public peace among citizens or harm the public interest, without prejudice to Article 29 of the Press Law shall be punished with the penalty prescribed in the previous paragraph. .
The person responsible for the actual management of the legal person shall be punished with the prescribed penalties, in the event of violating any of the procedures or measures issued by the committee or the decisions issued for its implementation in accordance with the provisions of this law, when it is proven that he was aware of them and the crime occurred due to his breach of his job duties.
In Article Seven, the draft law allows immediate reconciliation in crimes committed in violation of any of the provisions of this law or the decisions implementing it, in return for paying an amount equal to one third of the maximum fine prescribed for the crime. The maximum fine prescribed for the crime.
The right of the accused to conciliation shall not be forfeited by filing a criminal case before the competent court if he pays two-thirds of the maximum fine, prior to the issuance of a ruling in the matter. Execution of the penalty, even after the judgment becomes conclusive, and the criminal case lapses by paying the amount of reconciliation, and this lapse shall not have an effect on the civil lawsuit.
The head of the committee may issue a decision to close down or stop practicing the violating activity for a specific period not exceeding 6 months, in accordance with the text of Article 1 of this law or the decisions or procedures issued by the committee in implementation of this decision, in proportion to the nature and severity of the violation and the circumstances of its commission.
Do not treat the government without a vaccine
And the Egyptian government had previously announced that it would prevent entry to government places for non-vaccinators of the Corona virus during the coming period.
And government departments and universities have already started, since Monday, to prevent employees and students from entering workplaces and education until after submitting a certificate stating that they have obtained at least the first dose of the Corona virus vaccine.
And starting from the first of next December, it will not be allowed to deal with citizens in government departments and governorate offices unless after submitting a certificate stating that they have obtained the Corona vaccine, or a “PCR” certificate confirming that there is no infection with the virus.
And according to the data of the Ministry of Health, the number of new infections announced with the emerging coronavirus, yesterday, Monday, reached 946, in addition to 68 deaths, bringing the total number of infected people to 344,907, including 288,114 cases that were cured, and 19,567 deaths.
Two weeks ago, the Adviser to the President of the Republic for Health Affairs, Dr. Muhammad Awad Taj El-Din, announced the use of 35 million doses of vaccines, with 25 million vaccinated citizens.
Since the beginning of the Corona crisis, the communication sites have witnessed criticism by activists of the Egyptian authorities’ handling of the crisis, especially with regard to the belief that the announced numbers of injuries or deaths are less than the reality, as well as what is related to the vaccine and the authority’s slowness in providing it, knowing that the matter was not without accusations of citizens not being enthusiastic about some of them receiving the vaccine. .