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Ankle monitor bracelet
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Kentucky family under house arrest after testing positive for COVID-19

What is going on?

A Kentucky family is under house arrest after one of them tested positive for COVID-19. The couple must wear ankle monitors and can't leave the house after Elizabeth Linscott tested positive for coronavirus and refused to sign papers promising to self-quarantine.

Linscott planned to visit her parents in Michigan, so she got a COVID-19 test as a precaution. Despite not exhibiting any coronavirus symptoms, she tested positive for COVID-19.

"My grandparents wanted to see me, too," Linscott told WILX-TV. "So, just to make sure if I tested negative, that they would be OK, that everything would be fine."

After she tested positive, the Hardin County Health Department contacted her. The health department requested that she sign documents agreeing that she would self-quarantine and limit her travel. Linscott did not sign the document.

A few days after she declined to sign the "Self-isolation and Controlled Movement Agreed Order," the Hardin County Sheriff's Department arrived at her home.

"I open up the door, and there's like eight different people, five different cars," Elizabeth's husband Isaiah Linscott said. "I'm like, 'What the heck's going on?' This guy's in a suit with a mask. It's the health department guy, and he has three papers for us - for me, her and my daughter."

The authorities demanded that Elizabeth and Isaiah wear ankle monitors, and law enforcement said that they would be notified if the couple travel more than 200 feet away from their home.

"We didn't rob a store. We didn't steal something. We didn't hit and run. We didn't do anything wrong," Elizabeth Linscott said.

The Linscotts said they weren't against self-quarantine, but they didn't agree with the wording of the agreement.

"That's exactly what the director of the Public Health Department told the judge, that I was refusing to self-quarantine because of this, and that's not the case at all," Elizabeth said. "I never said that."

"I agreed to comply to call the Health Department if I was to go. I was to call the Health Department if I was to leave my house for any reason," she said. "I had gotten a message from them, a text message that stated, because of your refusal to sign, this is going to be escalated, and law enforcement will be involved."

The document required her to check in daily with her symptoms, self-isolate, and inform officials if she had to seek hospital treatment.

"My part was if I have to go to the ER, if I have to go to the hospital, I'm not going to wait to get the approval to go," Linscott told WAVE.

The Linscotts plan to hire an attorney to handle their legal issues stemming from the forced quarantine.

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