Wisconsin Statutes & Annotations
Chapter 252 - Communicable diseases.
252.02 - Powers and duties of department.

252.02 Powers and duties of department.
(1) The department may establish systems of disease surveillance and inspection to ascertain the presence of any communicable disease. Any agent of the department may, with a special inspection warrant issued under s. 66.0119, enter any building, vessel or conveyance to inspect the same and remove therefrom any person affected by a communicable disease. For this purpose, the agent may require the person in charge of the vessel or conveyance, other than a railway car, to stop the same at any place and may require the conductor of any railway train to stop the train at any station or upon any sidetrack, for such time as may be necessary.
(2) In an emergency, the department may provide those sick with a communicable disease with medical aid and temporary hospital accommodation.
(3) The department may close schools and forbid public gatherings in schools, churches, and other places to control outbreaks and epidemics.
(4) Except as provided in ss. 93.07 (24) (e) and 97.59, the department may promulgate and enforce rules or issue orders for guarding against the introduction of any communicable disease into the state, for the control and suppression of communicable diseases, for the quarantine and disinfection of persons, localities and things infected or suspected of being infected by a communicable disease and for the sanitary care of jails, state prisons, mental health institutions, schools, and public buildings and connected premises. Any rule or order may be made applicable to the whole or any specified part of the state, or to any vessel or other conveyance. The department may issue orders for any city, village or county by service upon the local health officer. Rules that are promulgated and orders that are issued under this subsection supersede conflicting or less stringent local regulations, orders or ordinances.
(5) If any public officer or employee or any person in charge of any building, vessel, conveyance, jail, state prison, mental health institution or school fails to comply with a rule promulgated or order issued under sub. (4), the department may appoint an agent to execute its rules or orders. Expenses that an agent incurs shall be paid by the unit of government that employs the person or of which the public officer is a member. If the building, vessel, conveyance, mental health institution or school is privately owned the state shall pay the expenses that the agent incurs.
(6) The department may authorize and implement all emergency measures necessary to control communicable diseases.
(7) The department shall promulgate rules that specify medical conditions treatable by prescriptions or nonprescription drug products for which pharmacists and pharmacies must report under s. 450.145 (1).
History: 1981 c. 291; 1993 a. 27 s. 284; Stats. 1993 s. 252.02; 1999 a. 150 s. 672; 2001 a. 109; 2005 a. 198; 2015 a. 55.
An order issued by the Department of Health Services confining all people to their homes, forbidding travel, and closing businesses exceeded the statutory authority of this section. Wisconsin Legislature v. Palm, 2020 WI 42, 391 Wis. 2d 497, 942 N.W.2d 900, 20-0765.
Discussing whether an emergency order issued by the Department of Health Services under sub. (3) is a rule that must comply with rule-making procedures in ch. 227. Tavern League of Wisconsin, Inc. v. Palm, 2021 WI 33, 396 Wis. 2d 434, 957 N.W.2d 261, 20-1742.

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