Health Commissioner: Risk of coronavirus still low, but Wayne County prepared

WOOSTER  The Wayne County Health Department convened a special meeting earlier today with healthcare organizations, social service, emergency management and government in preparation of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), according to a news release.

While the threat to Ohio at this point in time is low as there are no cases in Ohio to date, there has been spread to several new countries and also includes a person in the Unites States testing positive with no known source. For this reason, we want to be prepared as a community to respond if we need to, the release states.

The purpose of the meeting was to convene various stakeholders with the purpose of assessing the level of information sharing amongst community partners to date, to assess what agencies are doing in preparation of responding to a case and also with reports of shortages of N-95 masks, there was a discussion of resources.

“The public should know that our hospital systems, healthcare providers, emergency management, local government, public health and various social service agencies are engaged and working together in responding to emergencies of various types. I would like to assure the residents of Wayne County that the risk of COVID-19 is still low today, but if that changes Wayne County is well prepared to respond,” according to Health Commissioner Nicholas Cascarelli in the news release.