Coronavirus: Bel Air Begins Planning For Pandemic

BEL AIR, MD — If the new coronavirus reaches Harford County, the town of Bel Air will be prepared. Officials are working on a contingency plan in case the illness makes its way to the area, so services from police response to trash pickup are not disrupted.

On two occasions before, Harford County had plans in place for potential pandemics — mad cow disease and SARS — according to Town Administrator Jesse Bane.

"There was a plan in place at that time in Harford County to deal with what we were going to do if we found cows affected with the disease, and then there was SARS, believed to be pandemic but it never really panned out to be as bad as they thought it was going to be," Bane said. "This will be the third time since we've started to prepare for these things in Harford County."

The new coronavirus was first detected in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, and has since spread to nearly 40 countries, including the United States.

Bane emphasized there was no need to panic, and that federal health officials were advising people in the United States to begin planning in the event of the spread.

"There's no real need for real concern at this point, but they do expect a spread of the virus here in America, and they want to be prepared for it," Bane said. "Officials say they're preparing for a potential pandemic here."

He distributed a "continuity of operations plan" that shows how the town of Bel Air will handle the need to provide certain services in the event of a pandemic, or worldwide spread, of the new coronavirus.

"At some point in the very near future, I'm going to be sitting down with the department heads to go over this," Bane said at a work session Tuesday with the town commissioners and department heads.

Related:

• MD Coronavirus Planning For Pandemic Should Start Now: CDC
• Maryland Coronavirus Test Is Negative: State Health Official
• Maryland Governor Says State Is Preparing For Coronavirus

Bane thanked Public Works Director Steve Kline for bringing the new coronavirus issue to his attention and working on the draft plan.

"If it does happen, and we're not having employees coming to work," Kline said, "we have to figure out how we're going to remove the trash from the streets."

He added: "It could get scary real quick."

As an outline, Kline said he dusted off Harford County's plan for a pandemic from 2006 and began modifying it for the novel coronavirus.

The discussion about coronavirus Tuesday during the commissioners' work session was in the spirit of emergency preparedness, and Bane said he did not want to create any sort of panic.

"There is no issue right now in this country," Bane said.

But given that the new coronavirus "seems to have escaped confined areas and is spreading to a lot of different locations," Bane cautioned: "We need to be prepared."

Globally, at least 80,000 people have been infected and 2,700 people have died from the new coronavirus, creating a global pandemic, according to the World Health Organization. It is spreading so quickly overseas that infectious disease experts and scientists warn there may be no way to contain it.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday 53 cases of the new coronavirus have been confirmed in the United States. Three dozen of the patients are among passengers repatriated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship quarantined for weeks off the coast of Japan; three patients were infected in Wuhan, China, the center of the outbreak, and the others contracted the virus while traveling abroad.

Some at the work session in Harford County Tuesday said they knew of people traveling in Japan who would be returning to Bel Air afterward.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a news conference Monday the "sudden increase in new cases" outside of China is "deeply concerning."

Patch Deputy National Editor Beth Dalbey contributed to this report.