As used in the Public Health Emergency Response Act:

A. "attorney general" means the New Mexico attorney general;

B. "court" means the district court for the judicial district where a public health emergency is occurring, the district court for Santa Fe county or, in the event that a district court cannot adequately provide services, a district court designated by the New Mexico supreme court;

C. "director" or "state director" means the state director of homeland security and emergency management or the state director's designee;

D. "health care supplies" means medication, durable medical equipment, instruments, linens or any other material that the state may need to use in a public health emergency, including supplies for preparedness, mitigation and recovery;

E. "health facility" means:

(1) a facility licensed by the state pursuant to the provisions of the Public Health Act;

(2) a nonfederal facility or building, whether public or private, for-profit or nonprofit, that is used, operated or designed to provide health services, medical treatment, nursing services, rehabilitative services or preventive care;

(3) a federal facility, when the appropriate federal entity provides its consent; or

(4) the following properties when they are used for, or in connection with, health-related activities:

(a) laboratories;

(b) research facilities;

(c) pharmacies;

(d) laundry facilities;

(e) health personnel training and lodging facilities;

(f) patient, guest and health personnel food service facilities; and

(g) offices or office buildings used by persons engaged in health care professions or services;

F. "isolation" means the physical separation for possible medical care of persons who are infected or who are reasonably believed to be infected with a threatening communicable disease or potential threatening communicable disease from non-isolated persons, to protect against the transmission of the threatening communicable disease to non-isolated persons;

G. "public health emergency" means the occurrence or imminent threat of exposure to an extremely dangerous condition or a highly infectious or toxic agent, including a threatening communicable disease, that poses an imminent threat of substantial harm to the population of New Mexico or any portion thereof;

H. "public health official" means the secretary of health or the secretary's designee, including a qualified public individual or group or a qualified private individual or group, as determined by the secretary of health;

I. "quarantine" means the precautionary physical separation of persons who have or may have been exposed to a threatening communicable disease or a potentially threatening communicable disease and who do not show signs or symptoms of a threatening communicable disease, from non-quarantined persons, to protect against the transmission of the disease to non-quarantined persons;

J. "secretary of health" means the secretary or the secretary's designee;

K. "secretary of public safety" means the secretary or the secretary's designee; and

L. "threatening communicable disease" means a disease that causes death or great bodily harm that passes from one person to another and for which there are no means by which the public can reasonably avoid the risk of contracting the disease. "Threatening communicable disease" does not include acquired immune deficiency syndrome or other infections caused by the human immunodeficiency virus.

History: Laws 2003, ch. 218, § 3; 2007, ch. 291, § 23.

Compiler's notes. — This section was enacted by the legislature as part of Chapter 12, Article 10 NMSA 1978, but it was assigned to Article 10A by the compiler to separate it from the State Civil Emergency Preparedness Act.

The 2007 amendment, effective July 1, 2007, defined "director" as the state director of the homeland security and emergency management.