New York Public Health Law

NY PHL requires a physician's affidavit or other evidence from a laboratory reporting an individual with a contagious disease. The local health officer or commissioner may then apply to the court on a petition to impose quarantine or isolation measures on that one individual. It is not legal to act upon a news report claiming that everyone in the state is infected and that untrained and unlicensed employees of private businesses can impose medical interventions upon anyone. This practice actually violates the law.