Health officials are preparing for coronavirus to reach Milwaukee

Health officials expect the novel coronavirus to arrive in Milwaukee, but when remains unknown.

© Mark Hoffman, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel City of Milwaukee Health Commissioner Jeanette Kowalik holds a sign from the 1940s while speaking at a Public Safety and Health Committee meeting about coronavirus preparations Thursday at City Hall.

Officials from the city’s Health Department told members of a Common Council committee Thursday that they’re preparing on a number of fronts.

They also called on residents to do their part by thoroughly washing their hands, avoiding touching their faces, staying home when sick and taking other precautions that are normally advised to stop an illness’s spread.

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"Public cooperation is going to be so, so important to stop the spread or to mitigate the spread of the disease," said Julie Katrichis, director of clinic operations for the Health Department. 

There is no vaccine for the virus that has made its way across the globe.

Of the four people in Milwaukee who city officials said last week were under voluntary quarantine after having returned from China, the epicenter of the outbreak, only one is still in quarantine, Health Commissioner Jeanette Kowalik said. The measure was precautionary. 

There are no known cases of coronavirus in Milwaukee, she said.

Dane County public health officials said last week that the lone person in Wisconsin to be diagnosed with coronavirus was determined to be healthy.

The Milwaukee Health Department’s lab is one of two in the state currently able to test for the virus, but there have been no requests for tests since the lab got that capability, said Dr. Sanjib Bhattacharyya, laboratory director and special health commissioner with the city's Health Department.

The second is the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene in Madison.

Milwaukee's lab can currently handle between 25 and 30 tests per day but may double or triple that number, depending on the circumstances.

On Thursday morning, there had been 11 deaths from coronavirus in the U.S., 10 of which deaths were in Washington state and one in California.

California and Los Angeles have both declared states of emergency.

Early Thursday, there were 95,748 confirmed cases across the world, with at least 3,286 deaths, USA Today reported.

This story will be updated.

Contact Alison Dirr at 414-224-2383 or adirr@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter @AlisonDirr. 

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Health officials are preparing for coronavirus to reach Milwaukee