April 27, 2020
VIA EMAIL ONLY
Governor Janet Mills
c/o Scott Ogden
State of Maine
Capitol Building
1 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333
Dr. Nirav Shah, Director
Maine Center for Disease Control
c/o Robert Long
286 Water Street
11 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333
RE:

Public Access to Maine COVID-19 Data

Dear Gov. Mills and Dr. Shah:
With lengthy and informative daily press briefings, Maine has overall been very
transparent during the COVID-19 crisis. It was therefore surprising to learn that the State
has so far refused to make public certain detailed data on the COVID-19 outbreak in the
State, as reported by the Bangor Daily News on April 23, 2020.1 I am writing on behalf of
the Maine Freedom of Information Coalition2 to request that Maine reconsider its position
and proactively release to the public additional current data on COVID-19.
In particular, Maine has not released data on the location of positive cases broken
down by municipality or zip code, instead releasing data only at the county level.3 By not
https://bangordailynews.com/2020/04/23/news/state/as-more-states-release-covid-19-casesby-town-maine-says-it-could-take-6-months/
2 The members of the Coalition are the Maine Press Association, Maine Association of Broadcasters,
Society of Professional Journalists, League of Women Voters, Maine Library Association, Maine Real
estate Managers Association, Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance, and New England First
Amendment Coalition.
3 Maine also has not released data on the break-down of cases by race or on the number of tests by
region.
1

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 Governor Janet Mills
Dr. Nirav Shah, Director
April 27, 2020
Page 2
making town-by-town (or zip code-by-zip code) information public, Maine is out of step
with the more transparent approach taken by every other New England state. Information
on the incidence of COVID-19 by municipality is made public in Connecticut,4
Massachusetts,5 New Hampshire,6 and Rhode Island, 7 and Vermont.8 Other states also
make data on Covid-19 information by town or zip code, including Alaska,9 Illinois,10
Maryland, 11 and South Carolina.12 The growing consensus and best practice is to make
information on the prevalence of COVID-19 available to the public by municipality or zip
code, not just at the (less helpful and less informative) county level.
Access to more granular information about the prevalence of COVID-19 would be in
the public interest and would advance Maine’s public health mission. According to
Massachusetts Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders:
Having the ability to look at this virus through the lens of its impact on specific cities
and towns will help us identify potential hotspots, inform the public health
response, assist cities and towns working to slow the spread and help the state
appropriately deploy resources[.]13
A recent Boston Globe editorial addressing the same subject under the headline “More
COVID-19 Data from the State Would Save Lives” quotes U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley:
Data informs our public health response & containment strategies, it helps us to
identify trends, clusters, it holds us accountable to equitable access to testing &
treatment. IT WILL SAVE LIVES. It is a matter of the PUBLIC HEALTH.14
The Globe editorialized:

4

https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/Coronavirus/CTDPHCOVID19summary4092020.pdf?la=en

https://www.mass.gov/info-details/covid-19-response-reporting
https://www.nh.gov/covid19/
7 https://ri-department-of-health-covid-19-data-rihealth.hub.arcgis.com/ (data by municipality,
race, and number of cases in long term care and assisted living facilities)
8 https://www.healthvermont.gov/response/coronavirus-covid-19/current-activityvermont#town
9 https://coronavirus-response-alaska-dhss.hub.arcgis.com/
10 https://www.dph.illinois.gov/covid19/covid19-statistics
11 http://www.baltimoresun.com/coronavirus/bs-md-coronavirus-zip-code-data-20200412zdjqav6oxzhafnybxbg2emwtby-story.html
12 https://scdhec.gov/infectious-diseases/viruses/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19/sc-casescounty-zip-code-covid-19
13 https://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2020/04/16/community-case-numbers-massachusettsmunicipal-level
14 https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/04/11/opinion/more-covid-19-data-state-would-savelives/
5
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 Governor Janet Mills
Dr. Nirav Shah, Director
April 27, 2020
Page 3
Releasing those town- or city-specific infection numbers across the board and in
context — relative to the population and the number of tests, to determine potential
clusters — could help create a real sense of urgency among local officials and
residents when numbers start to climb in certain areas relative to others. That could
save lives. The public shouldn’t have revelations after the fact, like the disclosure
this week that Chelsea, a Latino immigrant enclave, tops the state in infection rates.
A “Guidance on the Release of Information Concerning deaths, Epidemics or Emerging
Diseases”15 issued by public health officials, health care journalists, and public health
information officers contains the following overarching principle:
Openness is paramount. It is an essential component of protecting the public and
communicating effectively. Public health officials should strive to release as much
information as possible, within the limits of the law.
Withhold information only when there is a clearly justified reason to keep it
confidential. Explain the rationale for any decision to withhold information.
If the reason for withholding is advice from local counsel, explain the basis for the
advice to the extent possible. If state, local or federal law is the reason, provide the
citation of the law in question.
MFOIC agrees. Access to more information on numbers of COVID-19 cases by specific
location would have direct public health benefits, by allowing the public to better prepare
and take precautions. It would also serve to enhance public confidence in Maine’s response
by replacing rumors and suspicion with solid data.
We are also concerned that Maine CDC is reported to have responded to a Bangor
Daily News Freedom of Access Act request for town-by-town data by saying that it will take
up to half a year to release that data. This suggests that Maine is not currently tracking the
incidence of COVID-19 at a granular level, as it is hard to see why else it would take six
months to provide the requested information. Although State resources are doubtless
strained at this time, it seems that tracking data on the geographic contours of the outbreak
should be a high priority, as should making that information available to the public on
request.
We have also considered whether town-by-town COVID-19 data is required to be
made public under Maine law. Under the Freedom of Access Act, de-identified
epidemiological data is a matter of public record. See 22 M.R.S. § 42(5) (distinguishing
between “records that contain personally identifying medical information” and records
that contain “medical and epidemiologic information in such a manner that an individual
can not [sic] be identified”). In addition, the Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act (HIPAA) does not prohibit disclosure of de-identified or aggregate data.
The Act applies only to disclosure by a covered entity of specific information about
15

https://healthjournalism.org/secondarypage-details.php?id=965

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 Governor Janet Mills
Dr. Nirav Shah, Director
April 27, 2020
Page 4
treatment of an identifiable patient, such as specific test results or details of a patient’s
illness—information we are not asking for. Put simply, health data that does not reveal the
identity of an individual does not threaten privacy interests and is public under Maine law.
To the extent that the State’s concern about reporting more detailed information on
the location of COVID-19 cases arises from concern that in very small jurisdictions
identifying case numbers may be a greater threat to privacy interests, the solution would
be to limit reporting in those very small jurisdictions only. Other solutions would be to
report case numbers in ranges (e.g., under 2 cases), or only if there is a cluster (i.e., 3 or
more cases). If a small town has a cluster of cases, the public might well need to be
informed about that, just as the State has reported clusters at certain nursing homes and
long-term care facilities.
We urge Maine to reconsider its position and proactively make available current
town-by-town or zip code-by-zip code data on the number of COVID-19 cases to the
maximum extent reasonably possible. I can be reached at sschutz@preti.com or
207.232.3045 and would be pleased to discuss this issue with you. We request a response
by May 1, 2020. Thank you for considering our request.

Very truly yours,

Sigmund D. Schutz
SDS/
cc:
Lindsey Crete (via email only)
Linda Pistner (via email only)
MFOIC Board of Directors (via email only)

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