Dresden, Tenn.–Dresden Mayor Jeff Washburn has requested an investigation by the Dresden Police Department into a complaint he received from a Dresden business concerning the presence of an individual has tested positive for COVID-19 and who is supposed to be under quarantine.
Washburn said he received the complaint Thursday about the individual “who is the lone confirmed COVID-19 virus case in Weakley County.”
The individual, he said, “was known to still be on quarantine at home orders at the time the individual was observed in the local business.”
Washburn noted, “In Tennessee, there is a statute that prohibits a person from evading or violating a quarantine order issued by the Tennessee Department of Health for the purpose of preventing the spread of any epidemic disease such as the Coronavirus. Additionally, Tennessee has a reckless endangerment statute which prohibits conduct that recklessly places or may place another person in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury.”
After the investigation, Washburn said, the individual may be charged with one or both of the offenses listed above if the quarantine order was violated after consulting with the District Attorney General’s office.
“Such conduct is what causes progressively stricter limitations on the movement of citizens and the implementation of curfews and shelter at home orders by government This conduct will not be tolerated and the City of Dresden will utilize all measures available to local government to protect our citizens from the spread of this virus,” Washburn said.