More communication and outreach is being done by the Danbury Department of Health as the coronavirus situation evolves.  Director Lisa Morrissey says they're not just updating city employees and the school district, but also in talks with major employers in Danbury and with medial providers.  She says it's important that they have plans ready for how to continue operations if staff become ill. 

Morrissey says dealing with emerging infectious diseases is something the department does on a regular basis.  A lot of the plans have been adapted from responses to pandemic influenza, Ebola, and SARS. 

The Danbury Health Department has been working with Nuvance Health to develop clear messaging to distribute across the community so that everyone has the same information.  She notes that the CDC has a lot of great information available to the general public, but its so dense, people can't get through it all. 

Morrissey and Mayor Mark Boughton talked about using the reverse 911 system to put out information, but thought that would cause more fear and more panic.  Once it gets to the point of communicating immediate information, they will use the system, but is concerned that using it from now will cause the opposite effect.