New Mexico Statutes Chapter 12. Miscellaneous Public Affairs Matters § 12-10A-3. Definitions

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:

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.