YOUNGSTOWN — Twenty-nine percent of Mahoning County’s COVID-19 deaths have involved people at long-term care facilities, Ryan Tekac, Mahoning County health commissioner, revealed Tuesday.

But Tekac and other officials quickly moved to quell calls for more specific information.

Tekac; Melanie Amato, spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Health; and Dr. James Kravec, chief clinical officer for Mercy Health’s Youngstown market, all participated in a conference call with reporters Tuesday to update the public on COVID-19 related issues.

But all three declined to answer any more specific questions about “hot spots” or other patterns that have developed regarding the areas hit hardest by the virus.

Amato said the Ohio Department of Health does not release information about specific facilities because it might identify a specific person in a facility who has the virus, which would violate privacy laws under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

Kravec said such questions “from a physician’s standpoint are completely irrelevant. The county is a hot spot. The state is a hot spot. The United States is a hot spot. We assume patients are positive (for the virus) based on community spread and we need to do social distancing to assume all of us have this. That’s how we have to handle this.”

He said he’s aware people are questioning what neighborhoods, ZIP code areas and nursing homes are having the most COVID-19 cases. But to provide the number of people with COVID-19 in certain ZIP code areas is “completely irrelevent” because there are no ZIP codes in Mahoning County where those people work, live, shop and never leave the ZIP code area.

Tekac added people should keep in mind that COVID-19 testing shows who is severely ill and health care workers with it, so providing the public with the ZIP codes for people testing positive would be misleading because “there are individuals who contract this virus and have very mild symptoms and are not tested.”

Kravec maintained it is “not a story” to know what ZIP code area has the most virus cases. “It doesn’t mean anything because people don’t go to their neighbors only. They go to the grocery store in different ZIP codes. They go to work in different ZIP codes. They shop in different ZIP codes.”

He said “the story” is “stay home because social distancing is saving lives.”

Tekac concluded the conference call by saying “This is not a time to let our guard down,” adding, “We need to continue to practice … social distancing, washing our hands.”

erunyan@tribtoday.com