Rospotrebnadzor concludes that its recommendations are methodological and aimed to facilitate various entities in the process of preventing the spread of coronavirus infection (COVID-19).
Rospotrebnadzor recognizes that there is no liability for non-compliance with the recommendations, since they “are not a regulatory legal act, do not contain legal provisions and do not entail establishment, alteration or cancelation the rights and obligations of citizens, legal entities and individual entrepreneurs, as they are of advisory nature”.
Such recommendations, among others, include:
- The Letter of the Russian Agency for Health and Consumer Rights “On recommendations on the prophylaxis of coronavirus infection (COVID-19) among employees” No. 02/6338-2020-15 dated April 7, 2020;
- Letter of the Russian Agency for Health and Consumer Rights “On recommendations on the preventing the spread of a new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) in medical organizations” No. 02/6509-2020-32 dated April 9, 2020;
- Letter of the Russian Agency for Health and Consumer Rights “On the addressing the recommendations on organization the work of the service sector on the prophylaxis of coronavirus infection (COVID-19)” No. 02/7500-2020-24 dated April 21, 2020.
Meanwhile, a number of Rospotrebnadzor’s documents are statutory and contain mandatory rules of conduct for business entities. So, sanitary and epidemiological rules of SP 3.1.3597-20 “Prevention of new coronavirus infection (COVID-19)” were approved by the Decree of the Chief State Sanitary Doctor of the Russian Federation No. 15 dated May 22, 2020. This document establishes requirements for a set of organizational, prophylactic, sanitary- and anti-epidemic measures, which ensure the prevention of the occurrence and spread of new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) cases. The sanitary and epidemiological rules SP 3.1.3597-20 specify measures aimed at preventing the spread of coronavirus infection (COVID-19), including monitoring the occurrence of diseases, collecting and analyzing the information received, epidemiological diagnostics, forecasting, and hygienic education of the population.
Non-compliance with these rules in the context of restrictive measures related to coronavirus infection (COVID-19) may entail administrative liability under part 2 of art. 6.3 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation:
- a fine ranging from 15 to 40 thousand rubles for citizens;
- a fine ranging from 50 to 150 thousand rubles for public individuals;
- a fine ranging from 200 to 500 thousand rubles or administrative suspension of activity for up to 90 days for legal entities.