North Texas first responders are preparing to encounter cases of COVID-19, implementing protective procedures for paramedics.

Mobile healthcare provider MedStar said it has a protocol in place that included placing a surgical mask over a patient's face to prevent possible transmission and an N95 respirator over their face.

“They are called N95 because they block out 95% of particulate matters,” Michael Potts, MedStar support services manager said.

Potts said patients who could have COVID-19 would be identified before a call and in addition to masks and respirators, paramedics would wear protective clothing and a shield if it is believed the patient is a legitimate case.

“We have identified patients under investigations through our call screening process, crews arrived on scene, they followed their procedures, did the screening,” Potts said.

So far, MedStar said it had encountered one patient in North Texas that was treated as a potential case, activating their full procedure that concluded with a disinfecting of the ambulance.

On Tuesday, Dallas County’s Director of Health and Human services updated Dallas County Commissioners on COVID-19. Dr. Phillip Huang said he was hopeful Dallas County would be able to independently test for the virus as soon as the end of the week and said health officials were working to make sure first responders are protected.

“We’ve been working closely with them on recommendations on personal protective equipment as well as the systems to let them know if we are monitoring people and they were to go to any of those locations,” Huang said.