Legal Issues in Quarantine and Isolation for Control of Emerging Infectious Diseases

Kim, Cheonsoo

Out of the two types of property quarantine measures, the first type is applied to sites with ‘infected patients and others’ who have an infectious disease in its epidemic phase regardless of the type of infectious disease, or to sites acknowledged as being contaminated with the corresponding pathogen; it is therefore the most important measure out of all quarantine measures, including both the individual and cohort levels. The specific methods of this measure are (1) “temporary shutdown” of the site in question, (2) “forbidding entry by the general public” of the site, (3) “restriction of passage within the site in question”, and (4) “other measures required for blocking passage.” Prior to the amendments on July 6, 2015, only measures that “block passage of the site in question for a certain period of time” were allowed and therefore, the government had no legal authority to immediately and actively take measures for the shutdown of the entire medical institution or the wards with infected patients.