Health officials in Mississippi are preparing for an outbreak of COVID-19: the disease caused by the new Coronavirus. MPB's Kobee Vance reports on what residents need to know.
Currently, there are no known cases of the coronavirus in Mississippi. But State Epidemiologist, Dr. Paul Byers, says the Department of Health is expanding its monitoring of the infectious disease.
"So that we can provide healthcare providers with the information that they need to be able to rapidly identify individuals who may be at risk. We're going to every hospital in the state to provide this level of guidance as well as infection control guidance."
At the University of Mississippi Medical Center, there are isolation rooms designed to treat infectious diseases such as COVID-19. Jason Smith is the Manager of Emergency Services at UMMC. He says each patient is screened.
"We're automatically asking them 'Have you traveled outside of the United States within the last 30 days? Have you had contact with anyone who has traveled?' If they answer one of those two questions in the positive, we then look at their signs and symptoms to see if they do fit the criteria for this particular respiratory illness. If they do trigger that, they automatically get a screen prompting them to move the patient immediately to an isolation room after they've put a mask on them."
Doctor Byers says the same steps for preventing the spread of the Flu are being used to combat COVID-19.
"Covering your coughs and sneezes, washing your hands after you blow your nose or go to the bathroom, or before you eat. Making sure that areas that are getting touched frequently are disinfected and cleaned appropriately and frequently. These are all ways that we can prevent the transmission."
The Department of Health will be providing updates on the disease on their website and through the Mississippi Ready app.
