Decoded: How the new epidemic Act aims to protect healthcare workers

Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the primary law to regulate healthcare emergencies was the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897. This colonial-era law was enacted to fight the bubonic plague in erstwhile Bombay. It comprised only four sections spread over just three pages.

Now, faced with an unprecedented health emergency, the Centre revisited this Act and added provisions that would help in fighting deadly diseases and also protect healthcare workers from abuse.

The Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Bill, 2020, has received presidential assent, thereby becoming law. The provisions of the Bill had already been in force, in the form of an Ordinance. 

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