The image perhaps said more than the words as a series of officials at a press conference in Huntsville to discuss the coronavirus each squirted their hands with sanitizer before speaking.

And that image carried the message to growing concerns over the coronavirus: Wash your hands, cover your cough, stay home if you are sick.

"We as a community will be ready," Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle said.

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Battle, Madison Mayor Paul Finley, Madison County Commission Chair Dale Strong attended the press conference along with representatives from both hospitals in Huntsville as well as Dr. Karen Landers of the Alabama Department of Public Health.

The intent was to calm any fears over the coronavirus and help educate the public on best practices to avoid being infected with the respiratory ailment.

“I want to spread the message and remind people that the first thing that our citizens can do, we have very smart people in the state of Alabama,” Landers said. "Our citizens can educate themselves from vetted sources. The Alabama Department of Public Health has a coronavirus webpage. The CDC has a wealth of information on the coronavirus and is updated as needed.

"And remind yourselves that this is a respiratory virus. What do we do to reduce the risks of other respiratory viruses? First of all, we need to be aware to wash our hands or use hand sanitizer for more than just running them other the water. I have the 'Happy Birthday' song that I do a couple of times when washing my hands. We cover our cough. We use our respiratory etiquette and cough into our sleeve. When we are ill, we should stay at home. We should take the advice of our healthcare providers."

Landers said no cases of the coronavirus have been identified in Alabama and that residents would be informed should such a case be detected.

"We want our community to know that our community is prepared," Battle said. "We're ready. We hope that we don’t have to be ready."

Medical officials at the press conference stressed that monitoring community health risks is part of their everyday job and not an effort that began with the spread of the coronavirus.

"At this point in time, we have the ability to respond to this," Landers said. "We have the experience to respond to this. We are staying up to date on the information. When we partner with the people in this room, with the community leaders, with the hospitals, with the physicians, with the nurses, with our first responders … when we partner, and when we work together, we're stronger. We can get through this when we continue to work together."

Dr. Pam Hudson, CEO of Crestwood Hospital, and Tracy Doughty, VP of Operations at Huntsville Hospital, echoed those sentiments.

”We are ready," Hudson said. "That's just part of what hospitals do."

Said Doughty, “We’re prepared if something happens here. It is our duty to make sure we are ready for anything like this to protect our community and Huntsville Hospital is one of the cogs of that.”