The Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") has announced a temporary enforcement policy that will apply during the COVID-19 outbreak and will operate retroactively to March 13, 2020. The EPA says it expects regulated facilities to continue to comply with regulatory requirements, where reasonably practicable, but where compliance is impractical, relief from enforcement may be available in appropriate situations ...
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced its temporary policy regarding environmental enforcement activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The policy is retroactive to March 13, 2020, and will apply for the foreseeable future, until seven days after EPA gives notice that the policy will terminate. The policy applies to actions for which EPA has federal enforcement authority ...
Many governmental authorities across the country have ordered “nonessential” businesses to shut down because of the COVID-19 crisis. Many business owners are asking what that means for the business income losses that they are forced to endure and whether insurance will cover those losses. Most property insurance policies that offer business interruption coverage provide some form of “civil authority” coverage ...
Rural and community hospitals could fill a major gap in a healthcare system that will likely be overloaded, in varying degrees, for at least the next 18 months due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Congress is in the process of passing the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“the Cares Act”) that provides unprecedented relief designed to help business in general, but specific allocations for hospitals ...
Is now a time to think a bit differently about an old topic? Let’s see. This short article does not make that decision for your business or client. It does provide the reasons to consider it. Until the aftermath of COVID-19 passes through the American workforce, businesses experiencing coronavirus-related economic hardships will face difficult decisions. These include whether to furlough or layoff employees—an already challenging question ...
On March 25, 2020, the Ohio General Assembly unanimously passed legislation providing emergency relief to Ohio municipalities, businesses, schools, and families related to COVID-19. Critical to civil litigants in Ohio, the legislation evolved to include emergency measures that will toll statute-of-limitations on forthcoming lawsuits and discovery deadlines in currently pending lawsuits ...
Through External Circular No. 001 of March 23, 2020, the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce (SIC) made clear that mobile phone operators and private entities in general have legal grounds to provide to the National Planning Department (DNP), as well as to public entities that so require it, personal data that is necessary to address, prevent, treat and/or control the spread of COVID-19 and mitigate its effects ...
Due to the declaration of the economic, social and environmental emergency generated by COVID-19 and in accordance with the preemptive mandatory isolation declared by Decree 457 of 2020, in addition to the need of guaranteeing the provision of the public transport service to insure access to health services and cargo supply to the population, the Ministry of Transport issued Decree 482 of 2020 to implement several measures applicable to the transport sector ...
In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, the business community is faced with unprecedented threats to their cyber-infrastructure and data. Sensitive data, in particular, will be vulnerable to security breaches as a result of reduced human power under emergency legislation. Moreover, criminal hackers will be looking to capitalize on such vulnerabilities at a time like this ...
In some areas, intellectual property will experience a period of slowdown in activity, at least in the near future. We look at this in more detail below. However, this does not mean mandatory registration of industrial property will come to a halt because, with many bodies, including the Portuguese INPI (National Institute of Industrial Property), registration is done online ...
We knew this year was going to be an especially bad one for the flu. In its November 2019 issue, Scientific American, one of the country's leading science publications, included a twenty-page article titled "The Influenza Outlook", which highlighted the escalating threat of influenza for the year 2020. Unfortunately, at present, the emergence and spread of the novel coronavirus makes the flu pale by comparison ...
Just 24 hours after the President signed the CARES Act into law, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) expanded the scope of its Accelerated and Advance Payment Program to include additional Part A providers and Part B suppliers. CMS outlined the program expansion in a fact sheet. The accelerated payments are intended to provide immediate cash flow relief to providers and suppliers focused on treating the flood of COVID patients ...
Zoom, the social platform which has become nearly ubiquitous in the past few weeks, has unintentionally introduced the world to a new term: “Zoom Bombing." Millions of people are struggling to maintain some semblance of normalcy as they continue to engage in personal and business interactions while simultaneously practicing social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic ...
Beginning on March 24, the Department of Labor (DOL) has been steadily releasing information and guidance on the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). We have been reviewing those releases to find the important information employers need to comply with the FFCRA and have summarized our analysis below ...
Czech Health Ministry's Special Measures UPDATED The government explicitly stated in the Emergency Resolution that the Health Ministry’s existing emergency measures are not to be affected by the state of emergency, which means that they remain valid and must be observed. All the Health Ministry’s special measures introduced valid after the emergency was announced must be observed as well. A brief summary (updated on 19March 2020) is outlined below ...
The offence of spreading coronavirus From what point exactly is the spreading of COVID-19 a criminal offence? Is it only intentional spreading that is punishable or is negligence also a criminal offence? What is at stake? What are the aggravating circumstances and when do the penalties increase? And can these criminal offences also be committed by a legal entity? The Government of the Czech Republic adopted, as a part of emergency measures due to health threat, Regulation No ...
Significant responsibility for ensuring compliance with directives to stop the spread of the Covid-19 virus has been delegated to the law enforcement authorities of the UAE. Last week, the Cabinet promulgated Resolution No. 17 of 2020, requiring all natural and juristic persons to comply with the measures mandated by the concerned authorities to combat Covid-19 ...
Breaking Tax News - IRS Extends April 15 Payment and Filing Due Date For Gift Taxes Because of COVID-19 Emergency 03/29/2020 Authored by: Jennifer R. Lan,John M. Collins,Jamie L. Carter,J. Mitchell Miller The IRS issued Notice 2020-20 on March 27, 2020, thereby superseding certain provisions of Notice 2020-18 related to filing and paying gift taxes (see our prior coverage here) ...
In the context of the health alert issued by the Ministry of Health and the subsequent declaration of a state of Constitutional Exception of Catastrophe in Chile, due to public calamity, a series of measures have been set in place, altering the regular operation of Criminal Courts, as well as for the Chilean Prosecutor's Office and Police Forces. I ...
As a result of the health alert decreed by the Ministry of Health and the subsequent declaration of a state of Constitutional Exception of Catastrophe in Chile, due to public calamity, several bills have been presented, which affect the criminal process, among others, bulletins N° 13.343-07 and 13.358-07. I. Bill that Establishes a Legal Regime of Exception On March 24th, 2020, the President of the Republic submitted a bill to the Chamber of Deputies, Bulletin No ...
Q&A procedures before the Public Health Institute (ISP) May I file for sanitary registrations? Requests for sanitary registrations for pharmaceutical products, cosmetics and others regulated, as well as for their modifications, may be filed for through the GICONA portal, and official tariffs shall be paid only through electronic transfer of funds ...
In the context of the current sanitary alert, several bills of law have been filed with Congress, seeking to regulate certain aspects associated to states of emergency and sanitary crises in particular.To such ends, the bills that stand out are:I. Bill prohibiting and penalizing price increases in the face of epidemics or pandemics:On Tuesday 17 March 2020, a bill was filed with the Lower Chamber (Newsletter 13 ...
In recent days, COVID-19 has been the greatest destabilizer worldwide. The World Health Organization defines coronavirus as an extensive family of viruses that cause respiratory infections that can range from common cold to serious health complications such as Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) ...
