Kentucky couple on house arrest after refusing to sign coronavirus self-isolation order

A Kentucky couple is under house arrest after refusing to sign a coronavirus self-quarantine order.

Elizabeth Linscott opted to get tested for the respiratory virus because she wanted to visit her grandparents, the Associated Press (AP) reports. The following day, her test came back positive.

Her local health department in Radcliff, Ky., contacted her, asking her to sign a form to agree to check in daily, self-isolate, and tell officials if she had to be hospitalized.

But Linscott declined to sign the state’s Self-Isolation and Controlled Movement Agreed Order.

“I could not comply to having to call the public health department prior if I had an emergency or I had to go pick something up for my child or myself as a necessity and could not wait,” she told the AP.

“If I have to go to the hospital,” she told NBC-affiliate WAVE3, “I’m not going to wait to get the approval to go.”

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She did, however, say she’d take precautions by notifying workers that she recently tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

Just a couple days after declining to sign, the Hardin County Sheriff’s Department paid her an unannounced home visit. Only her husband, Isaiah, was home.

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”I open up the door and there’s, like, eight different people,” he told WAVE3. “Five different cars and I’m like, ‘What the heck’s going on?’ This guy’s in a suit with a mask. It’s the health department guy and he has three different papers for us: for me, her and my daughter.”

Hardin County Sheriff John Ward confirmed that his office was on hand to execute court documents from a Hardin County Circuit Court judge. It was the first time his office had to do this, he told the AP.

The family was outfitted with ankle monitors that would notify law enforcement if they travel more than 60 metres anywhere.

“We didn’t rob a store, we didn’t steal something, we didn’t hit and run, we didn’t do anything wrong,” Linscott said. He added they never denied they would self-quarantine. Rather, they didn’t agree with the wording in the document.

”That’s exactly what the director of the Public Health Department told the judge — that I was refusing to self-quarantine because of this and that was not the case at all,” Linscott said. “I never said that.”

She said they plan on hiring a lawyer.

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meaghan.wray@globalnews.ca