MONTICELLO – The fourth case of coronavirus has been confirmed in Sullivan County, County Public Health Director Nancy McGraw announced Wednesday.
The patients have been self-isolating, and she said county staff is in the process of determining if there were any additional exposures.
Sullivan County, in accordance with HIPAA policies and procedures, is not releasing information that could potentially identify individuals infected with COVID-19. The location of the first case confirmed in Sullivan County, at the Care Center at Sunset Lake, was identified only because it occurred with a health care worker in a high-traffic, county-run facility that serves particularly vulnerable individuals.
“Everyone with an illness, no matter how contagious, has a right to privacy – especially when any identification of an individual could impact them negatively,” said McGraw. “That’s a real risk in communities as small as ours because of the familiarity that people have with each other. So unless we determine there is an immediate risk to public health – for example, transmission in a crowded location such as a nursing home – we will not disclose locations, names or other information that would enable others to easily identify those who are infected.”
