KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry has tabled the first reading of the amendments to the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988.
The amendments, which will empower the director-general or any authorised officer to offer compound for any compoundable offence under the Act, was tabled by Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad.
"The second reading of the bill will be conducted in the same session," he said when tabling the bill, today.
In 2021, the government under the administration of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob tabled the amendment of the Act in Dewan Rakyat, which sought to raise compounds of offences from the current RM1,000 maximum to RM10,000 for individuals and up to RM500,000 for corporate bodies.
However, it was then postponed due to criticism and was expected to be tabled and debated in the next sitting.
Meanwhile, based on the blue bill book circulated in Parliament, the Act will see an amendment to section 10 to require every medical practitioner who has reason to believe or suspect the existence of any infectious disease to give notice in any manner as determined by the director-general.
Clause 5 seeks to introduce a new section 15a to enable an authorised officer to issue any order to be complied with by any person who is infected or whom he has reason to believe to be infected, or any contact, for the purpose of tracking and monitoring.
Such an order may include the order to wear any form of tracking device provided by the authorised officer and to use any digital application in any digital device as determined by the authorised officer.
At the same time, clause 14 proposes to insert a new subsection 31(3) to empower the minister to prescribe the penalty for the contravention of any regulations made under the Act.
The penalty that may be prescribed in the case of person who is an individual, is a fine not exceeding RM8,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or both and in the case of a corporate body, a fine not exceeding RM50,000 or imprisonment for a term not more than two years or both.