Duluth Fire Chief and Director of Emergency Management Shawn Krizaj said the city has a large stock of face masks and has increased its orders of protective gloves and eyewear in anticipation of the coronavirus spreading to the Twin Ports.

"We want to make people aware of the fact that as a city we're working with the school district, the county department of health and human services, the Minnesota Department of Health, state Homeland Security and all of our partners," he said. "We're watching it. We're tracking it. We're planning. We're updating some of our plans that we have in emergency operations, making sure we have the right contact information and things like that."

Krizaj likened the precautions first responders are taking to the prevention measures they already employ to avoid contracting the flu.

"There's not really a lot of specialty equipment that we need. We just make sure that we've got the appropriate supplies to decontaminate our bags or any of our equipment that we would use," he said.

St. Louis County dispatchers responding to medical calls are questioning people about whether they are exhibiting any flu-like symptoms or have traveled abroad recently.

"So then, they would really make sure that they are masked up. We do have gowns that we would use. We always have a supply of that stuff. But as of right now, they're pretty much taking their daily precautions, unless they get that notification from dispatch that this is a high priority or possibly a high-risk patient," Krizaj said.

He said people can take some basic steps to avoid COVID-19 exposure.

"It's starts to feel a little mundane. I think people want a little more information other than just wash your hands and sneeze into the elbow and that, but those are the precautions," he said.

"When it will hit Duluth or St. Louis County, that's hard to say," said Krizaj, who aims to dedicate special attention to potentially vulnerable populations, such as nursing home residents. "It's a little tricky to say because I think it will be here at some point in time. How bad will it be? That's really almost impossible to answer right now."

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