The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Pennsylvania
- Level
- State
- Authority
- Police power of the Commonwealth (Pa. Const. art. III; the Act's title: 'relating to the prevention and control of communicable and non-communicable disease... and prescribing penalties')
- Issued
- 1956-04-23 Apr. 23, 1956
- Effective
- Standing law throughout 2020 and 2021 (read as 1956-04-23)
- End
- standing (read as 2021-09-30)
- In force
- Standing since Apr. 23, 1956 (a statutory duty; in force throughout the six quarters)
- Quarters
- 2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Quarantine and isolationStanding duty
- Addressees
- the Department of Health and local boards and departments of health (duty to act); persons generally (sec. 521.20(a): 'Any person who violates any of the provisions of this act or any regulation')
- Character
- statutory duty
- Collection
- Standing duties: Pennsylvania DUT-PA
Operative words
Upon the receipt by a local board or department of health or by the department, as the case may be, of a report of a disease which is subject to isolation, quarantine, or any other control measure, the local board or department of health or the department shall carry out the appropriate control measures in such manner and in such place as is provided by rule or regulation.
Penalty
sec. 521.20(a): for each offense, a fine of not less than $25 nor more than $300 with costs, and imprisonment in the county jail for up to 30 days in default; sec. 521.20(b): prosecutions 'may be instituted by the department, by a local board or department of health or by any person having knowledge of a violation'
What it required
Commanded the Department of Health and every local health authority to carry out isolation, quarantine and 'any other control measure' on report of a communicable disease, under rules the Advisory Health Board issues for 'the enforcement of isolation quarantine and other control measures,' and made every person who violates the Act or any regulation liable to a summary conviction.
Retrieval noteOfficial General Assembly PDF of the whole Act as amended (retrieved Sept. 29, 2026). Section 5 is the authority recited in every Secretary of Health order in States/PA (PA-003, PA-007, PA-008, PA-015, PA-016, PA-020, PA-022) and in the Governor's orders (PA-002, PA-023). The Commonwealth's enforcement guidance (Ex. DUT-PA-010) designated sec. 521.20(a) as a citation provision for violations of the closure orders and quoted sec. 521.20(b). In Corman v. Acting Secretary (PA-045) the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania read sec. 521.5 as authorizing control measures 'provided by rule or regulation' and held the Sept. 7, 2021 school face-covering order void because no rulemaking and no disaster emergency supported it; the orders of Mar. 6, 2020 to June 10, 2021 issued under the disaster proclamation (PA-001), which the same Court upheld in Friends of Danny DeVito v. Wolf (Ex. DUT-PA-020), are untouched by that holding.