As states confirm more cases of the new coronavirus disease, local health officials are requesting that people who have tested positive and those who’ve come in close contact with them isolate themselves at home for 14 days. Many states have laws that give health department directors the authority to enforce a quarantine on individuals who pose a threat to public health. And if people defy a court-ordered quarantine, they could face fines and criminal charges. Health officials rarely need a court order to require people to remain at home. But after learning that the father of a 20-year-old woman who tested positive for COVID-19 took his younger daughter to a high school dance, St. Louis County Executive Sam Page said the county could seek one.
(Read more: KCUR)
