County ready to respond to virus
Walker County has a plan to respond to the coronavirus if needed.
“Walker County Emergency Management team members, the Walker County Health Department and other local partners are actively monitoring developments with COVID-19,” said Joe Legge, Walker County public relations director. “We are in direct communication with Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) officials at the regional and state level to plan and take the appropriate action to reduce the spread of the virus and protect the general public.”
The response to an outbreak like coronavirus, which seeks to minimize the spread of the contagion, is different than for emergencies that are more typical for this area, such as clustering people in shelters after a flood or tornado.
Several years ago the state mandated that counties develop a response plan to deal with pandemic flu. Walker County’s plan brought together an array of local groups and agencies, including county and city governments, school systems, public health departments, hospitals and even some businesses.
Under the plan, local governments set up a chain of command to make day-to-day decisions in case those in leadership became too ill to work, designated areas that could be used as command centers for essential personnel to ensure that sanitation and utility services continued uninterrupted, and coordinated with local grocery stores and pharmacies to ensure home deliveries so that infected patients and those who feared exposure to the illness could remain in isolation at home.
Once the response plan’s skeleton was created, agencies update it as needed.
“DPH has a detailed pandemic flu plan that was developed in partnership with the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, the Georgia Department of Education and other state agencies, that is being adapted for a COVID-19 outbreak in the state,” Legge said.
This flu season nationally there have been at least 32 million flu illnesses, 310,000 hospitalizations and 18,000 deaths from flu, according to the Centers for Disease Control, or CDC; meanwhile, CNN reported worldwide that the virus has led to more than 88,000 illnesses and more than 3,300 deaths.
The CDC reported 99 total coronavirus cases and 10 deaths in the United States as of March 5. Tennessee announced a confirmed case of the virus that day, bringing the total number of states reporting confirmed cases to 14.
“It is important to note that at this time, the overall risk of COVID-19 to the general public remains low,” he said.