Tennessee Health Laws - Quarantine
Here's a summary of Tennessee's quarantine type laws: (from http://www.ncsl.org/research/health/state-quarantine-and-isolation-statutes.aspx)
Tennessee |
Tenn. Code Ann. § 68-1-201 (2006) |
Authority. The commissioner has the power to declare quarantine whenever, in the commissioner's judgment, the welfare of the public requires it. The county health officer is empowered to order the quarantine of any place or person if the county health officer finds that such control is necessary to protect the public health from an epidemic. No one but the commissioner, a state, municipal, district or county health officer or such person's duly authorized representative shall establish and terminate isolation or quarantine of persons with infectious tuberculosis. |
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Tenn. Code Ann. § 68-1-203 (1989) |
Penalties. Any person who willfully disregards or evades quarantine, or violates any rule or regulation made in attempting to prevent the spread of any epidemic disease, commits a Class B misdemeanor. |
And here's the full, actual text.
68-1-201. Power to quarantine.
(a) The commissioner has the power to:
(1) Declare quarantine whenever, in the commissioner's judgment, the welfare of the public requires it; and
(2) Prescribe such rules and regulations as may be deemed proper for the prevention of the introduction of yellow fever, cholera and other epidemic diseases into the state.
(b) (1) Whenever yellow fever, cholera, smallpox or other epidemic diseases appear in any locality within the state, and information thereof is brought to the knowledge of the department, the commissioner shall prepare and carry into effect such rules and regulations as, in the commissioner's judgment, will, with the least inconvenience to commerce and travel, prevent the spread of the disease.
(2) Whenever the commissioner determines that an influenza outbreak may pose a threat of an epidemic, the commissioner shall prepare and carry into effect rules and regulations that, in the commissioner's judgment, will, with the least inconvenience to commerce and travel, prevent the spread of the disease.
68-1-202. Quarantine stations.
(a) The commissioner shall select suitable localities for establishing quarantine stations, and may erect necessary temporary buildings for the disinfection of passengers, baggage, cargo and other matter believed to convey the contagious principle of cholera, yellow fever, smallpox and other epidemic diseases, and may enforce the transshipment of passengers as the commissioner may deem necessary.
(b) The commissioner shall assign to the charge of each station a competent physician and necessary assistants, who shall receive such compensation as the commissioner may deem reasonable and just.
68-1-203. Violating quarantine a misdemeanor.
Any person who willfully disregards or evades quarantine, or violates any rule or regulation made in attempting to prevent the spread of any epidemic disease, commits a Class B misdemeanor.
68-1-204. Recommendations by commissioner to governor on allocation of health care resources in affected areas.
In the event that an emergency or disaster as defined in § 58-2-101 occurs, that involves outbreaks of disease that present a danger of an epidemic, the commissioner shall make appropriate recommendations to the governor for actions under this title and title 58, chapter 2, to allocate all available heath care resources in the affected areas for immediate and long-term health care needs of the affected populations.