The News Tribune and Fulton Sun are offering this article free to all readers because it includes information important to public safety and health in our community.
The Callaway County Health Department has relented to the city of Fulton's repeated requests for city-specific COVID-19 data.
CCHD Executive Director Sharon Lynch had previously maintained that releasing data about the number of cases in Fulton could constitute a violation of federal medical information privacy law HIPAA. Lynch has historically been willing to share only county-level numbers.
The change in stance comes after Fulton City Council members voted Tuesday to send a letter to the CCHD formally requesting more specific information.
"The City Council has another tool to make what I say is still a judgment call on whether or not a mask ordinance is necessary," Fulton Mayor Lowe Cannell said Thursday morning.
The city is submitting a potential mask ordinance adapted from Springfield's to legal review, per a motion passed Tuesday.
As of Wednesday, active cases throughout Callaway County had shot up to 94. Only 13 of those cases were in Fulton, the CCHD data revealed.
Based on data available elsewhere, at least some of the cases are associated with Fulton's schools. Westminster College's campus had six active cases (one employee and five students) as of Thursday, according to the college's website. William Woods University listed four active COVID-19 cases (three employees and one student) Wednesday. And the Fulton 58 School District listed four cases of COVID-19; none were noted as recovered.
"I kind of plugged the numbers in - 13 positives means out of every thousand people in city limits, one of them has COVID-19," Cannell said. "You take the numbers of county as a whole, it's about one in 500. It basically tells us we're twice as good as they are in terms of positivity rates."
Cannell clarified that even one positive case is unfortunate, "but a number like 13 out of 13,000 is pretty encouraging," he said.
During Tuesday's meeting, City Council members voted to formally request the number of cases among people living in Fulton to date, the number of active cases, the number of deaths among Fulton residents and the number of hospitalizations. They also want to know the age ranges the cases fall within - children, young adults, older adults or the elderly.
Of that data, they received only the number of active cases, which Lynch shared during a phone call Wednesday, Cannell said.
"We did send a letter, but even prior to that we did talk to (Presiding County Commissioner) Gary Jungermann and we were informed that, yeah, we would be getting some information," Cannell said. "At this time, they've got our letter, they know we'd like to have some updates on that from time to time, however often that they can. We'd like that information. I don't know if they're going to provide that or not; they haven't said."
As of Thursday morning, the city-level data hadn't been posted to Fulton's website or to CallawayCovid19.com. Cannell said that while previously the city has pushed updates to CallawayCovid19.com, that task is being taken over by the county. He plans to share city-specific data provided by the CCHD to Fulton's official Facebook page.
"Sharon called yesterday, gave the info and said 'no strings attached,'" Cannell said. "I assumed that meant we could disseminate it to the City Council and whoever asked."
Cannell didn't rule out approaching the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services about providing other data the City Council wants to see. Council members also voted Tuesday to write to the state if the CCHD declined to provide the data.
"The fact they did give us some of what we wanted, we were thrilled with that," Cannell said. "As far as going to the state, at this point we hope to work through the county. I know they're overworked and they can't bend to our every beck and call."
Lynch was unavailable for comment Thursday morning. According to Jungermann, she never received the written go-ahead she wanted from the state before releasing Fulton's data. The county plans to provide daily numbers to Fulton regardless, Jungermann said.
"We weren't real sure we should do, it but the state of Missouri said it would be OK to give it to Fulton because in their opinion they have a high enough population," Jungermann said. "The state rarely gives you anything in writing, hardly ever. They'll tell you stuff over the phone, but when you ask for it in writing they'll say they're not your legal counsel."
Jungermann said CCHD was advised against providing data to smaller cities within the county - the smaller the city, the more likely it is someone could pinpoint the identity of a COVID-19 patient based on county health department data.
"The only reason we're giving it to Fulton now is that they're looking at a mask ordinance," he added.