COVID-19: Kaduna proposes new public health bill

Following the challenges posed by COVID-19 and the inability of existing laws to effectively manage it, Kaduna state government has proposed the Kaduna State Public Health Bill 2022 to handle public health issues and pandemics.

The executive bill, which is in its final stages of preparation before being sent to the Kaduna state House of Assembly, is to replace the current law made in 1917 and last amended in 1982, the Director, Legal Drafting, Kaduna state Ministry of Justice, Barr. Murtala Salisu Haliru has said.

He spoke at a Stakeholders’ Roundtable Dialogue Meeting for CSOs on the Kaduna State Public Health Bill 2022, organised by the Orixine Consulting and Young Innovators and Vocational Training Initiative with support from Resolve to Save Lives, Thursday in Kaduna.

The director said the last law, which was twice amended during the days of North Central state, has become obsolete and inadequate in the face of current happenings especially after the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said “Covid-19 was an eye opener, it showed inadequacies of our laws and regulations. Kaduna state was the first state to lockdown following existing public law because the lockdown order infringed certain rights of the citizens. Some of the provisions in the current public health law were archaic; fines imposed were as low as N20 or N10, some in pound sterling.

“We saw the inadequacies in that law which brought about this proposed law, disease outbreaks have taken place before Covid-19.”

State counsel, Kaduna state Ministry of Justice, Barr. Amanda Ambissa, who took participants through the bill, said it consists of nine parts and 90 subsections talking about various parts of the bill.

According to her, the proposed bill listed communicable and notifiable diseases and infections, what constitutes nuisances that could affect public health and processes of taking care of such nuisances including associated punishments to each of the offences and who is to implement the punishments.