Recently, a circular issued by the Qian'an government of Hebei Province spread on the Internet, saying that the city "uniformly seals and controls the buildings in the area, requiring each villager to hand over a key to the door. If he fails to hand it in, it will be sealed and controlled with iron wire". Similarly, in another circular circulated by a neighborhood committee, residents are also required to insert their keys into the door, and then the epidemic prevention personnel will uniformly lock it. If they do not cooperate within the specified time, they will be directly hard isolated.

At present, the general headquarters office for the prevention and control of COVID-19 in Qian'an city has responded that during this round of epidemic prevention and control, some communities have simple and extreme working methods. In view of this problem, we are conducting verification and rectification.

Q1: is compulsory isolation allowed in Chinese law?

Yes, but with corresponding restrictions.

According to Article 39 of the law on the prevention and control of infectious diseases, "When a medical institution finds a Class A infectious disease, it shall take the following measures in time: (1) isolate the patients and pathogen carriers for treatment, and the isolation period shall be determined according to the results of medical examination; (2) isolate the suspected patients in a designated place for treatment before diagnosis; (3) Medical observation and other necessary preventive measures shall be taken at designated places for patients, pathogen carriers and close contacts of suspected patients in medical institutions. If the public security organ refuses to take isolation treatment or refuses to take compulsory medical treatment without the expiration of the period, the public security organ may refuse to take isolation treatment.

Article 41 of the act also adds, "The local people's government at or above the county level in the place where a Class A infectious disease case has occurred or the personnel in a specific area in the place may implement isolation measures and report to the people's government at the next higher level at the same time; the people's government at the higher level that receives the report shall immediately decide whether to approve it. If the people's government at the higher level decides not to approve it, the people's government that implemented the isolation measures shall immediately lift the isolation measures During the period of separation, the people's government implementing isolation measures shall provide living security for the isolated persons; If the isolated person has a work unit, the unit to which he belongs shall not stop paying his work remuneration during the period of isolation ".

It can be seen that only patients, pathogen carriers, suspected patients and close contacts of suspected patients should be isolated, while only those who can be subject to compulsory isolation measures: those who refuse isolation treatment or leave isolation treatment without authorization before the expiration of the isolation period, and the isolation place can only be designated places such as medical institutions.

Moreover, only the local people's government at or above the county level can implement the isolation measures, report to the higher-level government at the same time, and decide whether the isolation measures are approved.

Q2: is it illegal for the neighborhood committee to require it to turn in the key to lock the door?

The act is illegal.

First of all, Article 37 of China's constitution stipulates that "the personal freedom of citizens of the people's Republic of China is inviolable". In other words, China's Constitution prohibits illegal detention and illegal deprivation or restriction of citizens' personal freedom by other methods, and the act of turning in their keys and locking the door is a disguised illegal detention that seems to be voluntary.

Secondly, Article 39 of China's constitution also stipulates that "the residence of citizens of the people's Republic of China is inviolable", and its purpose is to ensure everyone's "absolute privacy within the four walls". Turning over the key means that others can enter the residence of banned persons at will by virtue of the key, which runs counter to the legislative concept of "prohibiting illegal intrusion into citizens' residence".

Finally, if the behavior is not made by Qian'an Municipal People's government or not reported to the superior, it also violates the relevant provisions of the law on the prevention and control of infectious diseases, which is an illegal act.

This behavior is not only incompatible with the legal principle, but also contrary to the actual situation. Locking residents at home indiscriminately will not only disrupt their daily life and greatly affect their study and work, but also lead to serious potential safety hazards and life hazards. In case of fire in the anti lock corridor, the casualties will be immeasurable.