療養拒否には入院勧告　コロナ患者、費用自己負担も―政府検討

　政府は１２日、新型コロナウイルス対策を強化する感染症法改正をめぐり、軽症・無症状者が宿泊療養などを拒否した場合には都道府県知事による入院勧告を可能にし、入院費用は自己負担にできることを検討していると明らかにした。同日の自民党対策本部で示した。今月召集される通常国会に提出する同法改正案に盛り込む方針。
　現在は、宿泊・自宅療養の要請に法律上の根拠がない。そこで政府は、療養先を無断で抜け出すなどした場合、知事が入院を勧告できると定める。現在は公費負担となっている入院費についても、勧告対象者からは徴収できるとする。勧告に応じない場合は、１００万円以下の罰金を科すことを軸に検討している。（2021/01/12-18:21）

The Japanese government is considering a law revision to allow prefectural governors to recommend that symptom-free or mildly ill people with the novel coronavirus be hospitalized and have them pay their hospitalization costs if they refuse to isolate themselves at their homes or accommodation facilities, officials said Tuesday.
   Currently, there are no legal grounds for authorities to demand that such infected people stay at home or in accommodation facilities, and coronavirus patients' hospitalization costs are covered by public funds.
   The law revision is seen introducing fines of up to 1 million yen on those who do not comply with hospitalization recommendations by prefectural governors.
   The government explained the possible law revision at a meeting of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. It plans to submit a bill to revise the infectious disease law during an ordinary parliamentary session to start next week.
   The government also plans to introduce a criminal penalty for infected people who refuse to cooperate with public health authorities' epidemiological surveys to identify infection routes. The application of the penalty is expected to be limited to those with symptoms as severe as requiring hospitalization.