BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) - Even though there are no confirmed cases of coronavirus in Erie County, officials there said, because of legal reasons, they cannot disclose the number of people who are under quarantine for the virus.
"I can't discuss individual cases," Health Commissioner Gale Burstein told reporters on Wednesday. "I don't want to put anybody at risk of having their information disclosed. This is a rapidly evolving situation. The number of people under quarantine today is not going to be the same as the number of quarantined people tomorrow or the next day. Rest assured, the community should feel re-assured that we are working with our local health care providers to ensure that people who have a potential risk of exposure because of travel or because of a known close contact with someone with COVID-19 are being appropriately quarantined and potentially removed from exposing other people in the community."
That didn't stop Governor Andrew Cuomo from confirming that two people from the Buffalo area did not have the virus during a morning update. As of midday Wednesday, the state department of health said that there have been 78 people under investigation for coronavirus. Six people are confirmed to have the virus while 48 do not and 24 are pending results from a lab in Albany.
"The state violated the law," Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said. "We've been told that what they did was wrong and we can't violate it ourselves. (We can't) reveal the location of individuals that were subject to a test. I know (Erie County) is a big place. There was a fear the individuals may have had the virus and there was a fear that these individuals already had the virus. That's why we immediately acted to have the tests done, the samples collected, and to transmit it to the state for tests to be performed."
Poloncarz on Wednesday evening clarified his comments that said Cuomo's release of information was illegal.
Poloncarz said there have been multiple tests in the community, including of at least one student from the University at Buffalo who returned from China. He urged anyone planning travel to Iran, South Korea, Japan, China, or Italy, to immediately cancel their trips.
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The CDC is allowing the Erie County Public Health Lab to do testing for coronavirus. Burstein said it may take a couple of days to validate the testing. Once it's complete, samples locally will no longer need to go to Albany for testing.
"The advantage is that we won't have to add an additional four to five hours to drive the specimens to Albany," Burstein said. "We'll be able to do that right here and have a same-day turnaround time."
Anyone who voluntarily agrees to a quarantine must follow the rules of the quarantine. Burstein said she has legal authority to mandate someone to remain in quarantine that refuses to comply with a recommendation. She even said that police could get involved if someone violates a commissioner's order.
"We would give them what they need to do in terms of their travel and activities. We also give them a thermometer, a log to take their temperature and record that, and we'll call them at least twice a day. If we have any reason to suspect they are going out or letting people in, we will do a site visit with one of our Erie County sheriff's to investigate."