LINCOLN- Gov. Pete Ricketts issued an executive order Wednesday that appears to be intended to allow 911 dispatchers statewide to alert first responders whenever they’re being sent to the address of a person with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

The Nebraska State Fraternal Order of Police and the Nebraska Sheriffs Association had asked for the order. They want county and state public health officials to give 911 dispatchers a list of addresses of people with COVID-19, and for dispatchers to alert police, firefighters and paramedics when they are being sent to those addresses.

Sarpy County started doing it last week. The Douglas County Attorney’s Office had said it was not allowed under state law. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had issued guidance saying that the federal health information privacy law, HIPAA, did not prohibit sharing the information.

Ricketts’ executive order, signed Tuesday, says that Nebraska state law is more restrictive than federal law. The order temporarily suspends the applicable state statutes “which prohibit the disclosure of reports or information about cases of communicable diseases in such a way that an individual’s identity could be ascertained are temporarily suspended solely in order to permit the Department of Health and Human Services and the local public health departments to use or disclose identifiable health information when they have a good faith belief that such use or disclosure would prevent and lessen a serious and imminent threat to the health or safety of a person or the public” from COVID-19.

View the article HERE