The Federal Court of Guarulhos (SP) accepted a request from the Federal Public Ministry and decided that Anvisa must inform airlines operating at Guarulhos airport that passengers arriving from abroad must be quarantined and therefore cannot board domestic flights upon arrival in Brazil.
The 14-day quarantine has been set by Ministerial Decree No. 655/2021 and is mandatory for all travelers of origin or history of transit through South Africa, India and the United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland.
The decision was made in the context of a general civil procedure, proposed by the MPF, with the aim of preventing the free movement of passengers, who are obligated to comply with quarantine, from Guarulhos Airport, which has the largest flow of international travelers in the country and, accordingly, reduces the risk of entry of people infected with the Coronavirus, in particular by delta variable.
As stated by MPF and reinforced by Judge Alexey Suusmann Pere in the preliminary injunction, this strain has a viral load at least 1,000 times higher, with a high transmission rate. In extrajudicial negotiations, Anvisa itself suggested presenting the list to the airlines. As the obligation was not fulfilled, the MPF chose to file the lawsuit.
The agency explained in a technical statement that it does not have “the legal competence to standardize measures to prevent and control diseases or injuries, such as restricting the movement of people and disciplining the criteria for applying quarantine procedures.”
According to the judge, there is no legal basis to support Anvisa’s refusal to send data of travelers who must remain in quarantine. “On the contrary, both the Regulatory Agency’s Constitutive Act and Interministerial Order 655/2021 are expressed in emphasizing Anvisa’s competence to edit complementary acts, with the aim of promoting the activation and implementation of the activities entrusted to it,” he said.
Quarantine upon arrival
The injunction also highlights that “the defendant’s claim that the quarantine can be carried out in a place different from the place of disembarkation is unreasonable.” According to the judge, quarantine is legally defined as a restriction of activities or the separation of people suspected of contamination from those who are not sick, in order to avoid contamination or the spread of the coronavirus.
For the MPF, it is necessary to adopt measures to ensure compliance with the law and prevent passengers from circumventing mandatory quarantine, as happened with the first recorded case of a delta variant in Brazil.
An infected person who had passed through India landed at Guarulhos airport, and even after he said he was going to quarantine, boarded a plane bound for Rio de Janeiro, endangering the health of other passengers and crew.
“It is inadmissible that a traveler in a quarantine established by law and with which he himself previously committed himself to comply should be able to board another domestic flight within the epidemiological control area of the responding regulatory agency, without any hindrance,” the judge continued.
Providing a list of those who have to fire the airlines will prevent this from happening again, the MPF says. If Anvisa does not comply with the decision of the Federal Court, she will have to pay a daily fine of R$100,000. With information from the MPF press office.
Click here to read the decision
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