The party host had symptoms of Covid-19, but celebrated the party anyway, causing the infection of eight attendees to date, Ruppert said.
“Most people cooperate with us, but for the smallest number that do not, they have hung up on us. (They have given us) very small amounts of information and then they have refused to give anything else. We have been told no I neither want nor need to provide information, “Ruppert told CNN.
“So we got to the point where, since information is essential, I had to send eight subpoenas yesterday to get the information required for our contact investigations.”
The citations were punishable by up to $ 2,000 in fines per day, he said. All eight recipients have already responded.
“It worked,” he said.
Rockland County executive Ed Day said six people responded Wednesday and two responded Thursday.
“It’s amazing how smart some people got,” he told CNN. “Everyone is complying and helping us, which is all we try to make happen, is to work with us. We don’t seek to be punitive here.”
Why contact tracking is important
The function of a contact tracker is to reach potentially infected people and obtain information about who they have interacted with, where they have been and who lives with them, and try to quarantine them before spreading the virus.
“There are valid reasons why we need this information, and it will help them and their families and also the public,” he said.
She said they try to be sympathetic and empathetic to people who are reluctant to provide that personal information.
“Some people just don’t understand the importance of this, which of course with education we are trying to explain and that people understand why we need to know who their contacts are, where they have been, when that was, so that we can continue to decrease the number of cases in New York, “he said.
Day said Wednesday that the county is taking this situation seriously and will continue to contact, track and investigate.
“If you get in the way of a health department investigation, I will take, and we will take, all the necessary steps to ensure that we respond appropriately and we are talking about a serious response,” Day said.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said last week that the state’s contact locator system quickly identified clusters of cases at a Westchester County graduation event, a Montgomery County aluminum factory and an Apple County apple packing plant. Oswego.
“Thanks to our contact tracking program, we found these groups quickly, allowing us to address them immediately and help prevent the virus from spreading further,” he said Friday.
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