'A united front': Emergency management director updates county on COVID-19 preparations

A new “standing” item has been added to the Cape Girardeau County Commission’s meeting agendas — “COVID-19 Update.”

The first update took place at Thursday morning’s commission meeting at which county emergency management director Mark Winkler summarized the status of all coronavirus preparation activities taking place throughout the county.

“Right now we are at ‘level three’, which is a partial activation of our emergency operations center,” Winkler told the commissioners and other county officials at the meeting.

Winkler said he is in ongoing communications with county health officials and representatives from Cape Girardeau and Jackson municipal governments to make sure everyone has the latest information about how the coronavirus pandemic could impact county residents in the coming weeks and months.

“We just finished a countywide conference call with the City of Cape Girardeau, the City of Jackson, the university and other interested parties,” he said. “We are moving ahead with a united front on this endeavor and want to remind everybody that it all starts with personal protection safeguards, including personal hygiene, staying at home, practicing social distancing and contacting your local health provider or health department if you exhibit any symptoms.”

Winkler said a “coronavirus commission” has been established in the county and is being spearheaded by the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center.

“That commission met this past Monday and the health center is the ‘incident commander’ in this event,” he said. “All health questions are being forwarded to them.”

The emergency management director said he and others are participating in “daily conference calls with pertinent federal, state and local organizations as the situation develops.”

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