Waukon City Council member John Ellingson received zip code-specific numbers for COVID-19 positive cases in May and posted the numbers for Waukon-based Veterans Memorial Hospital, after corroborating the data with the local sheriff’s departments.
The health department claims that sharing the data is a HIPAA violation; Allamakee County has a population of around 14,000 people, meaning it falls under a Safe Harbor provision of HIPAA protecting data release. However, the department does release information for ZIP codes in other counties where the individual codes also fall under the threshold.
The public health department does release the ZIP code data to law enforcement and EMT services. When Mr. Ellingson made his Facebook posts with the ZIP code data, he claims the health department contacted law enforcement and local health officials, threatening their jobs if they released the data.
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