In the public interest, the Lexington County Chronicle wants health officials to disclose covid-19 locations.

The Department of Health and Environmental Control cites state privacy law for withholding zip codes, ages and gender of the affected.

The state’s leading Freedom of Information attorney Jay Bender wrote, “I think the DHEC response is symptomatic of an agency that does not trust its constituents. There are no privacy implications to releasing information about the age, gender, and location of those infected with the disease. 

“There is certainly no privacy interest in giving that information about the dead.

“I think it would be appropriate to call the head of DHEC to ask what specific law prevents the dissemination of the information you request.  You’re not asking for names and addresses.”

Such information is being disclosed in California.

The Chronicle believes that such disclosure is important to our readers.

Our readers are not children who must be protected by DHEC from the truth.

Laura Renwick of DHEC said, “We provide aggregate information on all cases that’s updated weekly and is available on DHEC’s covid-19 web page.

“This provides percentages of cases by ages, gender, race and more. DHEC’s covid-19 web page is updated each day around 4 pm with the newest numbers and latest information.”

DHEC has been under pressure from first responders and lawmakers for full disclosure of the virus’s spread.

DHEC released the number of positive cases by ZIP code with at least 1 case.

A day later officials replaced that with a list that just shows all ZIP codes with at least 1 case, WBTW-TV in Florence reported. 

Officials say this is because there are a lot of undiagnosed cases, so people need to act like anyone they encounter is infected.