Two Louisville coronavirus patients and a family member have been ordered by circuit judges to isolate and wear tracking devices after health officials learned they'd been in public against medical advice.
Issuing health-related civil orders is new territory for the courts, according to Judge Charles Cunningham, who issued two Friday. The third was issued earlier this month when a South End resident who tested positive for coronavirus refused to self-isolate.
"The home incarceration program is well-suited for this," said Amy Hess, the city's chief of public services, which includes oversight of Metro Corrections and Emergency Services. "It provides us with the proper amount of distancing. We can monitor activity after (the monitoring device) gets affixed to them … to make sure they're not further affecting the community.
The city's health department submitted a request for the order, which indicated one of the individuals was "walking around" and the other, based on a phone call, was thought to be out of the house, Cunningham said.
Not enough Louisvillians are taking pandemic guidelines seriously, Fischer stressed again Tuesday. In addition to closing libraries, community centers, the zoo and even some parks over the past few weeks, he's instructed police to cut back on the types of calls for service officers respond to.
And, in response to a lack of respect for his orders, he even had basketball rims taken off backboards in parks.
The first judge to issue an order requiring self-isolation was in Nelson County March 15, when a 53-year-old checked himself out of the University of Louisville Hospital against medical advice after testing positive.
Cunningham said the state's Administrative Office of Courts put out a 200-page document over a decade ago that gives emergency guidance to circuit judges on topics like public health.
Jefferson Circuit Chief Judge Angela McCormick Bisig's March 21 order required the first Jefferson County individual stay in his home for 14 days. Any violations, it said, may result in his arrest and criminal charges.
It said the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department would serve the order and Metro Corrections would fit him with a global-positioning device. The order said he'd be constantly monitored to ensure he stays home.
Nelson County Judge-Executive Dean Watts said the involuntary isolation of the county resident was permitted after he declared a county emergency.
Full article: https://www.courier-journal.com/stor...ts/5094594002/
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