Ky. couple on house arrest after not signing positive COVID-19 self-isolation order

Updated: Jul. 19, 2020 at 6:46 AM EDT
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HARDIN COUNTY, Ky. (WAVE) - A Hardin County couple is now on house arrest after one of them tested positive for COVID-19 and decided not to sign documents agreeing to self-quarantine.

Last week, Elizabeth Linscott got tested for the COVID-19 because she was planning to visit her parents in Michigan.

“My grandparents wanted to see me, too,” Linscott said. “So just to make sure if they tested negative, that they would be OK, everything would be fine.”

After testing positive but without showing any symptoms, Linscott said the health department contacted her and requested she sign documents that will limit her traveling anywhere unless she calls the health department first. She said she chose to not sign the documents.

“My part was if I have to go to the ER, if I have to go to the hospital, I’m not going to wait to get the approval to go,” she said.

But Linscott said she would take necessary precautions if she needed to go to the hospital, like letting workers know she has recently tested positive for COVID-19.

A couple of days after she denied signing the Self-isolation and Controlled Movement Agreed Order, Linscott said the Hardin County Sheriff’s Department arrived at her home without warning. Her husband, Isaiah, was home.

”I open up the door and there’s like eight different people,” he said. “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."

The couple was ordered to wear ankle monitors. If they travel more than 200 feet, law enforcement will be notified.

“We didn’t rob a store, we didn’t steal something, we didn’t hit and run, we didn’t do anything wrong,” Elizabeth Linscott said.

The couple said they never denied self-quarantining, they just didn’t agree with the wording of the documents..

”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.”

The Linscotts said they plan to get an attorney.

Documents from the Lincoln Trail District Health Department said Linscott sent a written statement to the health department that read, “I will do my best to stay home, as I do every other time I get sick. But I cannot comply to having to call the public health department everytime that I need to go out and do something. It’s my right and freedoms to go where I please and not have to answer to anyone for it. There is no pandemic and with a survival rate of 99.9998% I’m fine. I will continue to avoid the elderly, just like PRIOR guidelines state, try to stay home, get rest, get medicine, and get better. I decline.”

The documents also state Linscott attended a church service linked to 25 positive cases.

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