The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Connecticut
- Level
- State
- Authority
- Conn. Gen. Stat. § 19a-36(a) (the Commissioner 'shall establish a Public Health Code')
- Issued
- 2006-06-01 June 1, 2006
- Effective
- standing; in force throughout March 2020 to September 2021, as modified by EO 7PP § 2 (May 18, 2020) and EO 11A (April 19, 2021) to include a violation of the Sector Rules (read as 2020-05-18)
- End
- standing (read as 2021-09-30)
- In force
- Standing since May 18, 2020 (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
- Business closureStanding dutyOperating condition
- Addressees
- specified businesses (bakeries, restaurants and other places where food is prepared or served); owners or occupants of premises maintaining any listed condition; from May 20, 2020, every business subject to the Sector Rules
- Character
- sanitary code duty
- Collection
- Standing duties: Connecticut DUT-CT
Operative words
The following conditions are specifically declared to constitute public nuisances: (a) Bakeries, restaurants and other places where food is prepared or served that are not kept in a clean and sanitary condition; or in which persons who have any communicable disease are employed; or for which suitable toilet facilities are not provided...
Penalty
Conn. Gen. Stat. § 19a-36(a)(4): violation of any provision of the Public Health Code is a class C misdemeanor; § 19a-206(b): abatement order, injunction and $250 per day civil penalty; § 19a-230: class C misdemeanor for violating a director of health's legal order; EO 7PP § 2 and EO 9N/11A: closure until compliance and $10,000 civil penalty per violation
What it required
Every food-service and food-preparation business to keep its premises 'in a clean and sanitary condition' and to exclude from employment 'persons who have any communicable disease,' failing which the premises are a public nuisance that the local director of health 'shall' order abated (§ 19-13-B2(a)), enforceable by closure, injunction and the § 19a-206 civil penalty; from May 20, 2020 to May 20, 2021 the same definition included every violation of the DECD Sector Rules by any reopened business (EO 7PP § 2, Ex. CT-018; EO 11A, Ex. CT-041).
Retrieval noteThe Department of Public Health's own PDF of §§ 19-13-B1 to 19-13-B25. § 19-13-B1(a) is the pre-existing sanitary duty that made the exclusion of symptomatic and infected food workers compulsory before any COVID-19 order; the Sector Rules' 'Employees shall stay home if sick' (Ex. CT-090) restated it. EO 7PP § 2 (Ex. CT-018): 'Section 19-13-B1 of the Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies is modified to include in the definition of public nuisance a violation of the Sector Rules.' The Food Code provisions of chapter 368a (§§ 19a-36g to 19a-36o; § 19a-36k: a director of health 'shall complete an investigation and take action to control' a food-borne illness, with a class C misdemeanor for non-cooperation) are in Ex. DUT-CT-001.