Fort Worth officials prepare for potential coronavirus outbreak

FORT WORTH, Texas - The city of Fort Worth is trying to stay ahead of the COVID-19 virus.

Some of Fort Worth's top leaders met Friday to create a game plan and ask questions about what happens in the event of a coronavirus outbreak.

“You always have to be prepared. The EOC is always prepared for things and when you have something like this corona virus you want to step up that level of preparedness,” said Mayor Betsy Price.

The city is keeping close watch on information regarding the coronavirus, including the reported cases in the Houston area.

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Fort Worth police, fire, MedStar and the Tarrant County Health Department are in sync with precautionary measures and protocol should north texas become impacted.

Price said she knows what she would do in such a scenario.

“I'll be there to ask the high level questions to say, ‘How does this affect the public, how does this impact our residents and what are we doing for that?’ My job is not just the day to day operations, that’s the city manager's job. But mine rather is the public facing forward. Are we making decisions that our citizens are comfortable with and are we getting the word out to them? That's the goal here,” Price said.

The Friday afternoon meeting happened just a few steps away from the Emergency Operations Center command room. It’s a space city leaders are prepared to occupy with regard to the virus, but at the same time hopeful it won't be necessary.

“You want to be in front of this. You want to be proactive and not reactive and I feel like we're being very proactive,” Price said.

A Tarrant County hotline established for coronavirus questions and concerns is 817-248-6299.