Whatcom County officials last week created a single agency to address the new coronavirus. A Wednesday, March 18, statement from Whatcom Unified Command: COVID-19 Joint Information Center was signed by the county executive, mayors of all county cities, tribal officials, some elected members of the Port of Bellingham and the Whatcom County Council, and other officials.
- PUB DATE: 3/23/2020 3:15:34 AM - SOURCE: Bellingham Herald

When Hayward Fire Chief Garrett Contreras saw that San Jose had to quarantine many of its firefighters after they were exposed to coronavirus, he thought it could happen to his city, too. “We started to get concerned about taking care of our people,” he said. “Once I realized that there was a lack of testing for sick people in general, I realized there was a broader problem.
- PUB DATE: 3/23/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KQED-FM

Three Springfield Township firefighters are in quarantine after they learned through social media they had been exposed to a presumptive coronavirus patient. Chief Barry Cousino told The Blade neither the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department nor St. Luke’s Hospital informed his department of the potential exposure.
- PUB DATE: 3/23/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Blade

The unions representing cops, firefighters and EMS officers are urging Mayor Bill de Blasio to make them a higher priority for access to coronavirus testing given their front-line duties interacting with the public amid the pandemic. Ninety-eight NYPD officers and other employees and 17 Fire Department/Emergency Medical Service personnel have tested positive for COVID-19.
- PUB DATE: 3/23/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Post

North Branford Fire Chief William Seward was alarmed when he got the news: his department, which runs the town’s ambulance service, would only receive one box of 35 respirators from the strategic national stockpile. What’s more, all of those masks — which Seward picked up today in Essex — are expired.
- PUB DATE: 3/23/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New Haven Register