Judge: Health Dept. must respond to public records request

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi judge ruled Tuesday that the state Health Department must respond to a newspaper's public records request about long-term care facilities where outbreaks of the new coronavirus have occurred.

Hinds County Chancery Judge Tiffany Grove granted an emergency injunction in favor of Hattiesburg Publishing Inc., which owns the Pine Belt News.

Grove wrote that the Health Department has seven days to either provide information what the newspaper is requesting or cite a specific exemption in the state Public Records Act for denying the information.

The judge wrote that “the public interest is served by maintaining transparency and public access to public information when the appropriate requests for such information are made.”

The publishing company filed a lawsuit May 12 against the Health Department, saying that the department had improperly denied the newspaper’s request for the names of Forrest County nursing homes where at least one case of COVID-19 had been found. The lawsuit said the department spokeswoman did not provide a specific reason for not releasing the information and said her action violated the state’s public records law.

Other news organizations have sought the names of nursing homes where coronavirus cases have been found.

The state health officer, Dr. Thomas Dobbs, said in response to questions at a May 13 news conference that the Health Department will not release the names of long-term care facilities where residents or employees test positive for COVID-19, just as it does not release the names of facilities where other diseases such as tuberculosis are found.

“Ever since I’ve been at the Department of Health, we’ve recognized the real potential danger of identifying nursing homes in outbreaks,” Dobbs...