Why doesn’t Berks County report where the positive COVID-19 cases are located? That’s the most frequent question being asked at the Berks County COVID-19 Help Center says Director of Emergency Services, Brian Gottschall.
The answer is simple, Berks County does not have it’s own county health department. Others that do, for example, Montgomery County, are proving information by municipality. Berks County, along with 61 other counties, rely on the Pennsylvania Department of Health, which does not provide detailed information on where COVID-19 cases are.
“The information about the tested individual is held by, the individual, the healthcare provider, and the public health authority” says Gottschall.
“Berks County does not have the information to publicize it. That aside, knowing what municipality a positive test is in does nothing except potentially create a false sense of “security” in other municipalities as the number of known positives is much smaller than the number of people in the community who actually are positive.This is why social distancing and proper hygiene is critical. We need to be treating everyone like they are positive. That is how the spread of the disease will slow.”