MILWAUKEE, WI — New data from China shows the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus is on the rise. More than 60,000 people have been infected, and 1,370 have died. As those numbers continue to climb, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now urging local hospitals to get out their pandemic plans and start preparing. Doctors across the United States are using a novel coronavirus tracker created by Johns Hopkins University to prepare for a possible pandemic or outbreak. Firefighters, ambulance crews and clinic workers are on the front lines of trying to prevent an outbreak of the new coronavirus in southeast Wisconsin by isolating those who are sick.
“To know what sort of exposure, what sort of travel history, what sort of symptoms we would expect,” said Dr. Ben Weston, medical director for Milwaukee County’s Office of Emergency Management, which will oversee some 3,000 ambulance workers and medical providers if there’s a pandemic. “We’re working with the airport, with the Sheriff’s Department. We work with the Milwaukee Department of Public Health for preparedness, for training, for continuity of services should there be a pandemic,” Weston said. “So what’s the next step that we should be concerned about with coronavirus?” WISN 12 News reporter Terry Sater asked. “That’s a great question. So I would say, right now, it’s really monitoring. We work with a lot of different agencies. I personally talk with medical directors throughout the country and even some internationally through a group of the larger cities that discuss these sorts of things,” Weston said. –WISN
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