Court prohibits forcing patients into state quarantine

In the second court defeat in as many days, government has been prohibited from forcing those who test positive for Covid-19 into state quarantine facilities.

The High Court in Pretoria has issued a court order prohibiting government from forcing those who test positive for Covid-19 into state quarantine facilities if they are able to self-isolate.

The case was brought by AfriForum against Minister of

Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, and is the second case in two days rendering regulations proclaimed by the minister to be illegal.

The application referred to regulations 6 and 7 of the rules published by Dlamini-Zuma on 29 April, which allowed government to force a patient into a state quarantine facility.

The court has now, however, said that a person was “only required to be quarantined or isolated at a state facility, or other designated quarantine site; when that person was unable to self-quarantine or self-isolate, or refused to do so, or violated the self-quarantine or self-isolation rules.

Additionally and according to the judgment, in order to successfully self-quarantine or self-isolate, a person is required to have access to a separate room in which to self-isolate.

No one else must sleep in or spend time in the designated self-isolation room.

Lastly, the order dictated that the person must be able to contact or return to a health facility if their condition worsened.

AfriForum’s Ernst Roets described the ruling as “a big win for justice and freedom”.

Government’s power to force people into state isolation facilities received much criticism, when two Limpopo-based doctors were forced to leave their homes where they were self-isolating and were quarantined at the TB Hospital in Modimolle after testing positive for Covid-19 in April.