[UPDATE: On Monday April 6, Solano County released new information showing cases by cities, but detailing only the three largest cities in Solano. Smaller cities like Benicia are still in the dark. See COVID-19 in Solano County – 15 new cases over the weekend, curve continues up, partial city listings, fewer tests. – R.S.]
On Sunday, April 5, the Antioch Herald published information clearly showing a city-by-city listing of positive COVID-19 cases in Contra Costa County.
This information comes from the Contra Costa Health Department’s coronavirus Dashboard – see coronavirus.cchealth.org/dashboard. The listing also notes City population and Cases per 100,000. (Note that the Dashboard was slow to barely functional at the time of this writing. I’m guessing this is due to high traffic volume.)
SOLANO COUNTY REFUSAL
Solano County officials have been approached on multiple occasions with requests for more detailed information as to the whereabouts of cases in our county. On advice of County Council Bernadette Curry, the Solano Health Department has refused to release a city-based listing. Curry claims that releasing city specific data would violate the County’s obligations under HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act that was passed by Congress in 1996.
Note that Contra Costa is disclosing the number of cases in several cities smaller than Benicia.
On March 27, we reported that Orange County CA is also releasing a city-based listing of cases.
We hope the Solano County Counsel will reconsider and permit the Health Department to be more transparent. Residents and businesses deserve to know more about the facts and trends in our home towns.
You must be logged in to post a comment.