Life Sciences & Healthcare
Brazilian law that establishes protection measures against COVID-19 is amended in order to provide for the mandatory wear of personal protection masks
updated on Jul 13 at 11:49 am
On July 3rd, Law No. 14.019/2020 was published, amending Law No. 13.979/2020, norm issued at the beginning of the pandemic caused by the new coronavirus establishing preventive measures to contamination.
The new law, which is already enforceable, has added to the list of actions that may be taken by the authorities the mandatory wear of personal protection masks, whether hand-made or industrialized. The equipment, which has already become popular in Brazil for a few months, must keep mouth and nose covered and shall be necessary for circulation in public and private spaces to which the public has access to, in public streets and public transportation vehicles, as well as in private individual payed-for transportation vehicles via applications, taxis, charter buses, aircrafts or vessels for collective use. Moreover, masks must also be worn in prisons and establishments were socio-educative penalties are enforced.
Inspection in relation to public transportation shall be carried out by means of cooperation between the public power and the concessionaires and public transportation companies. They may prevent passengers who do not comply with the norms established by the corresponding grantor power in the terminals and vehicles they operate.
The wear of the personal protection mask, however, shall not be mandatory for kids younger than three years old, people with autistic spectrum disorders, with intellectual deficiency, with sensorial deficiency or with any other deficiency that prevents them from properly wearing the masks, as proved by a medical statement.
It is up to bodies, entities and establishments where it has been made mandatory for people to wear masks to fix informative posters about its correct wear and the maximum number of people admitted at the same time inside the establishment. In addition, public and private entities must adopt measures to prevent diseases from spreading, such as assuring places where people circulate are aseptic and providing visitants cleaning and sanitizing products.
It is expected that an additional regulation to the law is going to be issued, a norm that may eventually give more details to the obligations and exceptions above.
