WAMU-NPR: Local Health Agencies Prepare Response To Deadly Coronavirus
NPR- WAMU 88.5 'Local Health Agencies Prepare Response To Deadly Coronavirus,' Jan. 24, 2020.
Authorities in China continue to shut down airports and bus and train stations following the deadly outbreak of coronavirus, first identified in the city of Wuhan. Meanwhile, in the U.S., local health agencies are planning their response.
Dr. Lilian Peake, the Director of Epidemiology at the Virginia Department of Health, says that local and federal health departments are working on creating a response plan should a case of coronavirus be reported. "We're having regular calls with the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and we're trying to learn as much as we can. We have already created an update and provided guidance to clinicians in the state," Peak said. "We're already preparing, talking, making sure that we're coordinated .... so that we can rapidly respond."
Increased screening and quarantine measures have been placed at five airports in the United States so far, including John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, Los Angeles International Airport and San Francisco International Airport.
Currently, officials at Dulles International Airport, Reagan National Airport and BWI Marshall Airport have not enforced any additional screening procedures. Unlike a national public health center like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Virginia's health department does not play a role in deciding whether airports implement screening procedures for coronavirus.
"Those decisions are being planned and made at the CDC level," says Peake. "But the CDC is keeping us abreast of that information and we coordinate with them."...
More, https://www.npr.org/local/305/2020/01/24/799276505/local-health-agencies-prepare-response-to-deadly-coronavirus
