Officials say KY woman with coronavirus didn’t stay home. Judge forces her to isolate.
Health officials obtained a quarantine order in court on Thursday for a McCreary County woman who allegedly had not stayed home after testing positive for the novel coronavirus.
Officials had received information indicating the woman, whose name was not released, had not obeyed an order from the Lake Cumberland District Health Department to self-isolate, said Shawn Crabtree, director of the 10-county agency.
The woman was the first in the county to test positive for the virus that causes the potentially-severe respiratory illness COVID-19, according to a release from county Attorney Austin Price.
Health-department officials and the county sheriff asked Price’s office to seek a court order Thursday requiring the woman to stay home.
A judge issued the order, which also requires the woman’s companion to remain in quarantine, according to Price’s office.
Price said the woman was not in court and he hadn’t been told why she allegedly wasn’t self-isolating.
Health officials found out the woman wasn’t staying in as required through complaints to the district health department’s hotline and through social media, said Stuart Spillman, director of environmental health services for the department.
Price said the court case was sealed to protect the woman’s privacy and that he could not release details about her or her companion.
Violating the order could lead to criminal or contempt of court charges, Price’s office said.
The case has similarities to another in Nelson County, where a man who tested positive for coronavirus left a hospital against the advice of physicians and then bucked about an order to stay at home.
Officials set police outside his house to keep him in.
“It’s a step I hoped I’d never have to take, but we can’t allow one person who we know has the virus to refuse to protect their neighbors,” Gov. Andy Beshear said of that case.
Beshear and health officials have said it is imperative to limit gatherings, keep a safe distance from others and practice good hygiene to limit a potentially debilitating spread of the virus.
“People who have it and know they have it definitely don’t need to be out,” Price said.
Price said McCreary County doesn’t have enough police to post a guard outside the woman’s house, but that people in the community are likely to report it quickly if she doesn’t stay in.
This story was originally published March 26, 2020 at 6:27 PM.
