It is not a helpful or even correct perception that privacy has been getting in the way of fighting the Covid-19 virus. 

In a news report, Waikato DHB was criticised for not disclosing the number of Covid-19 cases in each of the region’s districts, citing privacy as the reason. Was it being overly cautious?

While we are pleased to see an apparently cautious approach, disclosing aggregate numbers of cases in a territorial authority will seldom raise significant privacy issues. Provided the information cannot lead to the identification of individuals, the Privacy Act does not apply. The Act only applies to information about an identifiable individual.

In these extraordinary times we are experiencing many restrictions on our rights. Privacy is no exception. The Privacy Act has sufficient flexibility to ensure that medical professionals and others have information necessary to respond to the crisis.

We expect that where there is an established clinical or epidemiological need for an agency to have access to health information, such as Covid-19 status, that agency or individual should have it. They should have as much as they need, and not more. It should be available to everyone who needs it, and not more. Where the need can be met with aggregate, or de-identified information, it should be.

The question for a DHB is whether the revealing of Covid-19 patient numbers is necessary for the public health response to the disease

But what about in small centres where the privacy of the patients might become an issue? For instance, the disclosure that there are one or two patients in small districts like Kaikoura, Grey or Opotiki, might lead to them being identified. The Director General of Health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, made the point this week: “There are privacy issues here. If you’ve got two or three cases in a small town, there are issues around who those people might be.”

Everyone is entitled to expect their health information is treated with privacy. In a pandemic like Covid-19 that privacy right will be qualified. More people need more information to manage the response. But not everyone needs to have that clinical information, because they’re not all able to do anything useful with it. That’s not “blaming privacy”, that’s doing what is necessary to address the crisis, while still respecting patients, and their information. Does a Mayor really need to know that there is one or two infected people in their district? What are they going to do with that information?

Ministry of Health contact tracing would ensure that those who had contact with the patient would be advised as a matter of course and be told to isolate themselves. The Prime Minister noted, if people wanted more specific information on cases in their area, it shouldn't change anything. "Having that information shouldn't change the way people behave. We need everyone to act as if they have Covid-19.”

Image credit: New Zealand Herald