In forceAmended2020 Revised Edition

Contents

Infectious Diseases Act 1976 · 2020 Revised Edition · Part 3 · Control of Infectious Diseases Within Singapore

7. Public health surveillance programmes, etc.

Amended

Last amended by an amending law of 2024. 4 amendments in all.

(1)

The Director-General of Health may, from time to time, institute public health surveillance programmes or undertake epidemiological investigations or surveys of people, animals or vectors in order to determine the existence, prevalence or incidence, or to determine the likelihood of a possible outbreak, of —

(a)

any infectious disease; or

(b)

any other disease which the appropriate Minister, by notification in the Gazette, declares to be a disease to which this section applies.

(2)

For the purpose of any public health surveillance programme, epidemiological investigation or survey under subsection (1), the Director-General of Health may require any person or class of persons —

(a)

to provide the Director-General of Health, within or at the times and in the form or manner the Director-General of Health specifies, with any of the following where the Director-General of Health requires:

(i)

any information known to the person (or any person in the class of persons) at those times;

(ii)

any sample of any substance or matter in the possession or control of that person (or any person in the class of persons) at those times, whether obtained under this Act or otherwise; and

(b)

to submit to a medical examination at the times the Director-General of Health specifies.

(3)

If a person (including a person in a class of persons) who is required by the Director-General of Health under subsection (2) to furnish the Director-General of Health with any information or sample, or to submit to any medical examination, fails to do so, without reasonable excuse, the person shall be guilty of an offence.

(4)

The Director-General of Health may send any sample obtained under subsection (2)(a)(ii) for such test, examination or analysis as the Director-General of Health may consider necessary or expedient.

Terms defined in s 2

appropriate Minister
Defined · s 2
“appropriate Minister” means —(a)in the following cases, the Minister charged with the responsibility for health and sanitary measures in relation to vessels, aircraft, vehicles and persons entering or leaving Singapore:(i)the establishment of any advisory committee under section 5 for the purpose of giving advice to the Director‑General or the Director‑General, Food Administration;(ii)any purpose relating to sections 28, 29 and 33 to 45, including the making of subsidiary legislation in relation to any of those sections; or(b)in any other case, the Minister charged with the responsibility for regulation of diseases and disease control;
Open s 2
Director-General
Defined · s 2
“Director-General” means the Director‑General of Public Health appointed under section 3(1) of the Environmental Public Health Act 1987;
Open s 2
infectious disease
Defined · s 2
“infectious disease” means —(a)any of the diseases specified in the First Schedule; and(b)for the purposes of sections 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 17A, 19, 55, 57A and 59A, includes any other disease —(i)that is caused or is suspected to be caused by a micro‑organism or any agent of disease;(ii)that is capable or is suspected to be capable of transmission by any means to human beings; and(iii)that, the Director has reason to believe, if left uninvestigated or unchecked, is likely to result in an epidemic of the disease;
Open s 2
medical examination
Defined · s 2
“medical examination” includes the carrying out by a person (called the examiner) of any of the measures mentioned in paragraphs (a) to (f), with a view to ascertaining a person’s state of health, whether or not the examiner is present with the person being examined:(a)physical examination of the person;(b)obtaining the person’s bodily samples;(c)obtaining images of, or measuring, the person’s physiology;(d)measuring or monitoring the person’s physiological signs;(e)obtaining the clinical history of the person;(f)a measure to facilitate the carrying out of anything in paragraphs (a) to (e);
Open s 2
surveillance
Defined · s 2
“surveillance” means subjecting a person or persons to medical examinations or observations carried out over a period of time (whether or not continuously) and includes carrying out any measures to facilitate those medical examinations or observations;
Open s 2