The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Massachusetts
- Level
- State
- Authority
- Massachusetts General Laws, Part I, Title XVI, Chapter 111 (Public Health)
- Issued
- 2026-09-28 Sept. 28, 2026
- Effective
- standing (read as 2026-09-28)
- End
- standing
- In force
- Standing since Sept. 28, 2026 (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
- persons generally; owners or persons in control of premises; health care providers
- Character
- statutory duty
- Collection
- Standing duties: Massachusetts DUT-MA
Operative words
The department shall have the power to define, and shall from time to time define, what diseases shall be deemed to be dangerous to the public health, and shall make such rules and regulations consistent with law for the control and prevention of such diseases as it deems advisable for the protection of the public health.
Penalty
Through the regulations made under it (105 CMR 300.000) and G.L. c. 111 enforcement provisions
What it required
The Department defines the diseases dangerous to the public health and makes the binding control-and-prevention regulations for them; 105 CMR 300.000 (reportable diseases, surveillance, isolation and quarantine) is the regulation made under this power, and COVID-19 is on its list (DUT-MA-011).
Retrieval noteG.L. c. 111, s. 7 (read on malegislature.gov Sept. 28, 2026; not saved) adds that when a disease 'declared by the department to be dangerous to the public health exists or is likely to exist in any place within the commonwealth,' the Department 'shall make an investigation thereof and of the means of preventing the spread of the disease' and 'shall have co-ordinate powers as a board of health, in every town, with the board of health thereof.' The Public Health Act's relation to the Civil Defense Act was resolved in Desrosiers, 486 Mass. at 379-381 (DUT-MA-020).