The earlier story is available at: http://boonecountywatchdog.blogspot.com/2020/10/secret-state-covid-19-outbreak-locations.html
Two Weeks after NBC 5 Revealed Illinois' Secret List, the State Still Won't Release Outbreak Details
While Illinois officials repeatedly beg people to steer clear of large gatherings, they’ve privately been keeping track of just those kinds of cases, which have caused tens of thousands of coronavirus infections throughout the pandemic, all across the state.
By Phil Rogers and Katy Smyser • Published November 9, 2020 • Updated on November 9, 2020 at 7:41 pm
On Monday, after promising NBC 5 for weeks that it would release its data on thousands of coronavirus outbreaks, it posted some information on its website. But the "data" turns out to be just some pie charts and general numbers; no details at all about the thousands of outbreaks it has been tracking.
However, you can see the state's entire secret list, because NBC 5 and Telemundo Chicago posted it as part of our original investigation.
See the original report below:
NBC 5 Investigates and Telemundo Chicago Investiga have found thousands of little-known outbreaks of coronavirus in Illinois -- in restaurants, bars, retail stores, preschools, workplaces, gyms, clubs, churches and parties -- all kinds of parties -- across the state. Yet for months the state has concealed these outbreaks from the public, despite the fact that these are the very cases that could directly support officials’ continued pleas for people to avoid large groups of people.
The confidential list -- maintained by the Illinois Department of Public Health -- was obtained by the “Documenting Covid-19 project” at Columbia University’s Brown Institute for Media Innovation, working with the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting. The group received the list, apparently by mistake, in response to a public records request to a county health department.
“The email we received says ‘confidential - do not share,’” said Sky Chadde, the Midwest Center’s Gannett Agricultural Data Fellow. "[It was] pretty much of an accident in terms of getting these records.”
Those records contain 2,553 confirmed outbreaks of coronavirus cases across the state — outbreaks which resulted in the infections of 43,780 people.
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