A Kentucky couple says they were placed on house arrest and fitted with ankle monitors after one of them tested positive for COVID-19 but then refused to sign a county self-isolation order.
Elizabeth Linscott told reporters that she recently decided to get tested as a precaution before visiting her grandparents. After receiving a positive test result the county health department contacted her requesting she sign a self-isolation order agreeing she must receive health department approval before leaving her residence for any reason, which she refused, according to the Lexington Herald Leader.
Last Thursday, a few days after Linscott refused to sign the order the couple unexpectedly received a visit at their house from health department officials who were accompanied by the county Sheriff’s department.
“I open up the door, and there’s like eight different people, five different cars,” said Linscott’s husband, according to NBC affiliate WAVE. “I’m like, ‘What the heck’s going on?'”
The couple said they were ordered to wear ankle monitors and told that if they travel more than 200 feet that law enforcement would be notified, WAVE reported. (RELATED: Aaron Rodgers Compares Coronavirus Lockdowns To House Arrest, Wants To Know What Freedoms We Have ‘At This Point’)
Linscott, a young mother, claimed she never refused to self-quarantine and that she would take the necessary precautions of letting health care workers know she had tested positive for the virus if she needed to go to the hospital, but said she could not comply with having to wait for approval if she had an emergency, or had to pick something up for her child that could not wait, WAVE reported.
A Kentucky couple is wearing ankle monitors after a run-in with the health department over COVID-19 concerns.
https://t.co/NY6RYBSMRR— FOX19 NOW (@FOX19) July 19, 2020
“My part was if I have to go to the ER, if I have to go to the hospital, I’m not going to wait to get the approval to go,” said Linscott, according to WAVE.
The couple said they did not agree with the wording of the order, not that they denied self-quarantining, WAVE reported.
“That’s exactly what the Director of the Public Health Department told the judge, that I was refusing to self-quarantine because of this and that was not the case at all,” Linscott said, according to WAVE. “I never said that.”
A statement received by the Daily Caller from the Hardin County Sheriff’s department said that no law enforcement agency in the county has initiated a petition to isolate anyone based on positive COVID-19 testing. The office reiterated that any such petition would be initiated by the Lincoln Trail District Health Department and they only assisted health department officials in executing court documents signed by a judge, just as they do for thousands of court ordered notices each month. Still, Sheriff John Ward of Hardin County told the Herald Leader that it was the first time their office had executed an order of that kind.
The statement also insisted that the sheriff’s office did not install location monitoring devices on anyone in Hardin County and they do not have any open cases, or ever had any in the past, involving the enforcement of a failure to isolate for positive COVID-19 testing.
Lincoln Trail District Health Department spokeswoman Terrie Burgan declined to comment on the matter to protect the privacy of the family, according to the Herald Leader. The Hardin County Sheriff’s department also said that due to the confidentiality of the case they will not be making anymore comments or releasing any additional documents about the court’s action unless directed by a court.