In north Texas, Tarrant County officials established a war room in a downtown Fort Worth building a month ago. Dubbed “the Bridge,” it’s a place for officials and experts to gather for daily conference calls with federal, state and local health officials, and to hash out local actions to take.
“That’s what you do in an emergency operation, you plan as best you can,” said Richard Hill, a spokesman for the Tarrant County Public Health Department.
In neighboring Dallas, which was the U.S. epicenter of the 2014 Ebola outbreak, Judge Jenkins has been through this drill before. A 45-year-old-man visiting from Liberia died from the Ebola virus in a Dallas hospital after infecting two nurses who were caring for him.
The city learned a lot from that experience, so local officials are especially aware of the potential impact of a pandemic. Even so, “Every outbreak is different,” Jenkins cautioned.
No ‘Sugarcoating’
There are no cases in north Texas yet, he stressed. But emergency workers have spent recent weeks carefully mapping out procedures for everything from testing and isolating sick people, to communicating with the public -– a high-wire act requiring keeping the community informed without causing panic.
If a case is confirmed, that will be announced, and the public will be told where that person has been and who might have had contact with them, Jenkins said. What officials won’t be sharing: Every time a person gets tested for the virus, or the location and identity of quarantine facilities and medical staff.
“We won’t sugarcoat things, but we don’t want you to be unnecessarily alarmed,” he said.
Those suspected of the virus but not in need of immediate medical care will probably be asked to self-isolate in their homes until test results are back, Jenkins said. Health workers will monitor the person daily, and others in the home will be educated about how to stay safe. The address will be entered into a quarantine database for first responders, so if fire, police or an ambulance are called to the location, they’re aware of the situation, he said.
In Illinois, which became the first state this month to provide testing for Covid-19 at state labs, officials are assessing hospitals to determine capacity, and checking availability of gloves, gowns and masks for health care workers, according to a statement. The state’s health department is working on increasing testing capacity for quick results while coordinating with federal and local governments.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot expressed frustration that CDC and Trump administration officials were unnecessarily alarming people. “I want to make sure that people understand they should continue to go about their normal lives,” Lightfoot said, noting that the Chicago area has had two confirmed cases. “We have extremely well-thought out, well planned responses in the event that the virus appears again in anyone else in Chicago.”