Sen. Kim Ward seeks state law change to provide covid-19 info to first responders

A Westmoreland County lawmaker wants to amend state law to require the Pennsylvania Department of Health to release the general location of covid-19 cases to first responders.

State Sen. Kim Ward, R-Hempfield, is seeking co-sponsors for an amendment to require state health officials to release information about coronavirus cases by municipality.

“This information is extremely pertinent to our first responders, and we can’t even get it as legislators. It’s an issue of transparency, and transparency has been nonexistent during this covid-19 emergency,” Ward said.

Ward said she has been flooded with calls from county officials and first responders seeking information about the covid-19 hot spots.

Such information, they insist, is needed to allocate resources where they are most needed.

Ward is seeking an amendment to the 1955 Disease Prevention and Control Act that specifically calls for the release of diagnostic information by municipality to county officials in the event of a public health emergency triggered by an infectious disease.

A spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Health said the agency is complying with the law as it exist.

“The Disease Control and Prevention Act limits information being released to only what is necessary to protect the health and well-being of Pennsylvanians,” department spokesman Nate Wardle said.

Melissa Melewsky, media lawyer with the Pennsylvania News Media Association, said the law has been upheld by the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records and state courts. Still, it has been a problem for years, she said.

“It is very draconian in terms of what public health information is public, but the health department also has discretion to release information when it serves the public interest,” Melewsky said.

Officials with the Allegheny County Department of Health, one of 10 county and local health departments in Pennsylvania, apparently is relying on that discretion. On Tuesday, officials there announced they will release addresses of people diagnosed with covid-19 to emergency management officials in Allegheny County. Those addresses will be flagged in the 911 call system so dispatchers can alert first responders if the address pops up on a call.

The arrangement calls for flags to be removed from the system after 30 days.

Wardle said the state’s 10 county and local health departments are bound by the same law the state agency is citing, but may be interpreting it differently.

Ward said her proposal came in response to local pleas for help.

“With only 10 local health departments in the commonwealth, the majority of our counties fall under the (Department of Health) for communicable disease prevention and control. This means while more specific geographic information of covid-19 cases are available in some counties, such as Montgomery which has publicly mapped the municipalities in which there are positive cases of covid-19, the majority of counties do not even know that information because the state Department of Health has refused to release any information on covid-19 cases beyond the county in which they are located,” Ward wrote in a memo seeking cosponsors for her amendment.

While officials need to tread softly around federal HIPPA laws which prohibit the dissemination of health information that would identify people, Melewsky said releasing general information about ZIP codes or municipalities should not be a problem.

Ward said her proposal will not compromise the confidentiality of patient information.

“No names or other information will be released beyond the municipality in which the person with a communicable disease like covid-19 resides,” she said.