(CNN) — A Kentucky coronavirus patient checked himself out of the hospital against medical advice and refused to quarantine himself, so sheriff’s deputies are surrounding his house to keep him there.

The 53-year-old man in Nelson County is one of the state’s 21 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Monday afternoon, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said. (Updated chart: Coronavirus cases, state by state.)

“It’s a step I hoped that I’d never have to take,” Beshear said in a weekend conference about the “forced self-isolation.” “But I can’t allow one person who we know has this virus to refuse to protect their neighbors.”

Beshear didn’t share then how the government had forced the unnamed man to stay in his home. But Nelson County Sheriff Ramon Pineiroa told the Kentucky Standard that deputies have been parking outside of the man’s home for 24 hours a day and plan to remain there for two weeks. The patient is cooperating now, Pineiroa said.

A county official told TV station WDRB that the man lives on the outskirts of Bardstown, 25 miles southeast of Louisville.

When the man left the unnamed hospital, he gave a Meade County address despite having lived in Nelson County for some time, the sheriff said.

Most state laws for imposing quarantines are fairly broad. Kentucky law gives the Cabinet for Health and Family Services the power to declare and “strictly maintain” quarantine and isolation as it sees fit, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.