Council orders public health to release data on COVID-19
Acting medical officer says information could risk patient confidentiality
Niagara Region councillors are ordering public health officials to immediately release the breakdown of COVID-19 cases by municipality — despite concerns it could undermine patient confidentiality in smaller communities.
At Tuesday’s public health and social services committee meeting, a motion by St. Catharines Mayor Walter Sendzik was approved to require Niagara’s acting medical officer of health, Dr. Mustafa Hirji, to release data about the virus on a per-municipality basis.
Sendzik said Hirji was asked to provide a municipal breakdown of cases at the last council meeting, and asked why that had not been completed.
“I personally asked for information related to each municipality … As a councillor and mayor of the largest municipality in Niagara, I was asking for a municipal breakdown of where the infection rate was occurring,” he said.
“If council provides a direction, are you able to simply ignore it? You don’t have to answer, you don’t have to provide information, you’re simply above direction of council? I’m just trying to get clarification.”
Hirji said he must follow the directives of council, although he is not required to follow any requests of councillors “if there are reasons it can’t be done.”
Fort Erie Coun. Tom Insinna, too, said the number of cases per municipality is important information for Niagara’s local municipalities, providing a baseline to refer to if new cases develop.
Hirji said providing that information for each municipality would mean reporting very small numbers, and that can risk patient confidentiality.
Insinna disagreed, saying specific information such as age and gender are being withheld.
“If one or two people have it in Fort Erie, that’s not an invasion of privacy,” he said.