Object

Abstract:

The emergence of the new coronavirus SARS-Co2-V and the infectious disease (COVID-19) which it causes required immediate state-level decision-making in a number of areas including, for example, politics, health, economy, system of preschool and school education, research, border crossing, mobility, etc. The danger of infection, the unexpected and unusual nature of the threat, as well as its scale, have forced decisive actions, primarily these aimed at strengthening the public health sector and mitigating the socio-economic impact of the coronavirus. At the same time, it was critical for the state to take other steps, including preparing and then implementing regulatory changes. The research problem presented in the article is assessment of whether the statutory changes did actually address the situation and the issue of ensuring safety, including sanitary and epidemiological safety, from COVID-19 infectious disease and the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing the disease, what the changes were and what their character is. The hypothesis presented in the article is that the direction of the implemented statutory changes, manifested in the introduction of new legal measures of various nature, is relevant to the situation and to ensuring safety. It became necessary to create the possibility of using new instruments in specific cases related to infections or infectious diseases, increasing the speed of issuing and executing decisions imposing obligations specified by the Act on the State Sanitary Inspection, creating the possibility of supplementing the applicable regulations by issuing recommendations and guidelines for individual addressees, which gives possibility of detailed definition of norms of conduct. All in the name of ensuring safety in the broadest sense of the word. The purpose of this article is to discuss key regulatory developments. The focus is on the State Sanitary Inspection (SSI). The deliberations are focused on the history of sanitary-epidemiological services in Poland, the issue of sanitary-epidemiological safety and, most importantly, the new legal instruments introduced to the Act on the State Sanitary Inspection, regulating its activities in the field of risk prevention. The basic research method used in the article is the legal-dogmatic method, consisting of the analysis of legal acts, the study of legal literature, as well as case law, and the historical method, presenting changes in legislation. The article closes with a summary, conclusions, final verification of the hypothesis and indications for further research.

Date issued:

2021-07-20

Identifier:

oai:ribes-88.man.poznan.pl:2022 ; doi:10.37055/slw/140378 ; oai:editorialsystem.com:article-140378

Electronic ISSN:

2719-7689

Print ISSN:

1508-5430

Publisher ID:

140378

Starting page:

105

Ending page:

123

Volume:

54

Issue:

1

Journal:

SLW

Keywords:

sanitary-epidemiological safety ; COVID-19 ; legal regulations ; State Sanitary Inspection ; state of epidemic