ELYRIA, Ohio — Lorain County first responders are preparing for possible new coronavirus cases.
Health Commissioner for Lorain County Public Health, Dave Covell presented the latest information and answered questions for a group of fire and police chiefs as well as government leaders at Lorain County Community College Tuesday night.
“I think it’s very important to think about how much people are getting bombarded from a lot of sources with information about COVID-19, so bringing people together, talking through what questions they might have, so we can get to answers and have practical ways to prepare for this,” he says.
“Ever since 2002 we’ve really been planning for pandemics about terrorism events and drilling, we put it into practice when H1N1 was here and a variety of different times.”
Covell says this is nothing new and they know how to prepare.
“When any new virus pops up we all have to be vigilant and ready and there’s a public health system throughout this country and state level and local level working everyday to protect people from these diseases.”
Lorain County Sheriff Phil Stammitti says his office is working to be proactive about the new coronavirus.
“We just want to be on top of stuff just in case it comes to Ohio, lucky, knock on wood there’s been no cases in Ohio yet but we think it’s probably coming here,” he explains. “The more [information] you have the better off you are.”