HIPPA being used to avoid Covid19 contact tracing.

In my over 50 senior living less then 200 apartments my 80 some year old friend who I play cards with disappeared about about 4 weeks ago. A wellness inquire provided the answer his where about was known.  Today he came back safe and healthy. I learned he somehow caught Covid19 and was in the hospital for four solid weeks.

I was never contact traced. The building did issue a general letter that a resident had tested positive.  We suspecteed it was him but we were not sure of it. The letter did not provide a name or say said person was hospitalized. Letter just said person has been isolated. I was never personally spoken to.

No information was provided that allowed a person to self assess exposure.

Upon my friend’s return and learning the truth I confronted management that I and two other fellow card players should have been self-isolated. Fortunately none of us came down with Covid19. Basically management hide behind HIPPA using it as a policy to avoid internal contact tracing at a level the CDC could never provide.

So when you read stories of nursing homes being ravaged this is a one reason why of many.

Now having said all this. How does one do contact tracing with paranoid cognitively impaired population?  Quite the dilemma.