Coronavirus prep coming under fire
Experts: Too much calming of the waters
It’s “now or never” for health officials to nail down plans to prepare for a possible coronavirus outbreak in Massachusetts, experts warn.
Dan Richards, CEO and founder of Global Rescue, a crisis response provider based in New Hampshire said, “At a minimum, plans for handling the logistics of a lot of sick people — if they haven’t been written or considered, it’s pretty late in the game to do that but it’s better to do it now than never.”
Massachusetts health officials, along with Boston Mayor Martin Walsh and Gov. Charlie Baker, continue to say the risk to residents is low, a bad move according to Irwin Redlener, director of Columbia University’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness.
“People who are unaccountably positive, like it’s all under control — that doesn’t help,” Redlener said. “We need to be treated like grownups.”
Redlener said, “What local officials should be doing is making sure they have sufficient hospital beds and testing equipment.”
Richards echoed Redlener, saying priority needs to fall on communication, staffing and inventory of medical supplies, which can run low quickly during emergency situations.
Tufts Medical Center is giving staff refresher training on wearing and removing protective equipment and tightening up their travel screening process at points of entry into the medical center.
The hospital also created carts with protective equipment to deploy wherever a
patient may need an evaluation.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health is instituting an incident command structure for briefings and decision-making, providing infection control prevention guidance to hospitals, monitoring supplies of medical equipment and keeping education and communication up to date.
Baker announced he would have a more-detailed coronavirus preparation plan out next week.
Colleen Arons, spokeswoman for the Executive Office of Health and Human
Services, noted DPH’s preparation efforts and said in a statement, “Since the beginning of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), the BakerPolito Administration has been actively planning to ensure Massachusetts is prepared to respond to a potential outbreak in the state.”
A spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency said it’s premature to coordinate quarantine space and distribution of water, food and medical supplies as well as cancel leave or augment staffing.
The World Health Organization increased the global risk of spread and impact of coronavirus to “very high” on Friday as cases continued to soar above 80,000 and deaths inch closer and closer to the 3,000 mark.
Community spread of the coronavirus could be growing in California, where health officials on Wednesday spotted the first believed case in a person who reportedly did not have relevant travel history or exposure to another known patient with the virus.
On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified another patient with the coronavirus in California who appeared to have no recent international travel history and may have been exposed in their community.