Lake County health officials won't divulge coronavirus patients' identities

While the McHenry County Department of Health will begin providing law enforcement agencies with the identities of people who test positive for COVID-19, the Lake County Health Department announced Friday that it will continue to protect the privacy of those patients.

According to the Northwest Herald, a temporary court order was issued Friday for the MCDH to disclose the names in response to a request by the McHenry County Sheriff's Office and four police departments. The law enforcement agencies argued that knowing the names of people who test positive would help ensure the safety of officers, and those safety concerns outweigh concerns over privacy.

The MCDH, the Northwest Herald reported, has requested the "tightest control" of the information and said names will be provided on a call-by-call basis.

The Lake County Health Department, on the other hand, said Friday that it will not release the addresses of people who test positive for COVID-19 despite repeated requests for the information. Releasing the information not only violates privacy rights, the department said in a statement, it also creates a false sense of security for first responders.

"You must assume that in every home and business that you enter, every person you encounter could be infected and contagious," Lake County Health Department executive director Mark Pfister said in a statement. "Please protect yourself during all of your interactions with the community. This is the only way you can keep yourself, your loved ones, your colleagues and the community safe."

The Lake County Health Department said it is protecting privacy rights for COVID-19 patients in the same way it protects the rights of residents who have HIV, hepatitis or any other health condition.