KPBS: San Diego County Won’t Disclose Which Assisted Living Homes Have COVID-19 Cases (July 22, 2020)

The Department of Social Services has published the names of 154 facilities with seven or more beds that have COVID-19 cases. In a statement, a spokesperson said another 96 smaller facilities have had cases but have not been named because it may allow the public to identify people who contracted the virus, which would violate health privacy laws.That decision has effectively denied the public access to valuable information, said Eric Carlson, an attorney at the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Justice in Aging. “Knowledge about the presence of COVID-19 is just incredibly important at this point,” Carlson said. “It’s not helpful for consumers and others to be deprived of that information.”