Refusing or faking COVID-19 test can bring legal punishment

A disinfection specialist team from central China's Henan Province is now in Shanghai to support the city's anti-COVID campaign.

Refusing to take nucleic acid test or antigen self-testing could lead to legal punishment and demerits on personal credit account, according to legal experts in Shanghai.

According to China's Law on the Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, companies and individuals within the country must accept the investigation, inspection, sample collection, quarantined treatment and other prevention and control measures.

Those who refuse to carry out the orders issued by the government under emergency conditions could be detained by up to 10 days and fined up to 500 yuan (US$78.45), as per the nation's public security penalties law, Yuan Xinzhong, visiting professor of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, pointed out.

Those who cause an epidemic or severe outcomes can be put behind bars for up to seven years, according to China's criminal law, Yuan noted.

Furthermore, Shanghai's public health emergency management regulation stipulates that apart from legal punishment, the violations by companies or individuals will be recorded on the city's public credit information platform.

Those who forge or change antigen self-test results and cause COVID-19 to spread will be punished for impairing infectious disease prevention.

A confirmed COVID-19 patient who forges his or her antigen test result and enters a public area or takes public transport will be punished for putting public safety at risk, according to Shi Wenlong, a professor with the law school of Shanghai Normal University.

During pandemic prevention, companies and individuals have a duty to accept prevention and control measures, report information about patients as well as obey stipulations. People should also take self-protection measures, such as wearing a mask in public areas, Shi added.

If a citizen refuses to accept quarantine measures, police can impose a punishment or help medical organizations apply mandatory measures, based on the law of emergency incidents response, the professor remarked.