DESPRE (IM)POSIBILITATEA REȚINERII INFRACȚIUNII DE ZĂDĂRNICIRE A COMBATERII BOLILOR ÎN CAZUL PERSOANELOR INFECTATE CU SARS-CoV-2 CARE AU REFUZAT INTERNAREA ÎN PERIOADA STĂRII DE URGENȚĂ

During the state of emergency both some press articles and the official communiques of the
prosecutor’s offices mentioned the criminal investigation in the case of persons who, being confirmed
as infected with SARS-CoV-2, refused to be hospitalized. The present study does not aim to provide
a classic analysis of the crime of thwarting disease control, but is limited to trying to find an answer to
the question of whether it is possible to retain this criminal offence in the case of infected persons
who refuse hospitalization. As such, this paper discusses the current Romanian legislation and
concludes that, having regard to both the provisions of the Protocol for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2
virus infection and the systematic interpretation of the legal framework, since the Minister of Health
enacted only measures to prevent and manage the emergency generated by the pandemic, as well
as the obligation to diagnose the symptomatic persons, the measure of hospitalization cannot result
exclusively from the unilateral will of the doctor, in reality the will of the latter playing no role, but must
derive from the law in order to impose itself on both the patient and the doctor. Therefore it cannot be
retained the crime of thwarting disease control in the case of infected persons who refused to be
hospitalized.