Council making coronavirus plans

At the cabinet meeting on Tuesday chief executive, Dr Caroline Turner explained plans were being put into place to minimise the risks of infection, but also be flexible enough to respond to cases.

Dr Turner, said: “The governments are publishing their plans on how to deal with Coronavirus across the UK.

“That will give us a lot more information of what we need to do and what the scenarios could be.

“As far as I’m aware there’s still only one confirmed case in Wales, but we’re clear as a county council, that we need to prepare and play our part in wider preparations with our partners.

“Since last week we have started having internal meetings to prepare in case there are outbreaks here.

“We are part of the local resilience forum so we’re working with a range of partners to exchange information and plan jointly.

“We are also working closely with Powys Teaching Health Board, who are the lead partner in any activities within Powys itself.”

Support

Dr Turner added: “In terms of the councils role, we need to be mindful what this means to our workforce and we need to give advice to our schools.

“We also need to make sure our staff are available to support communities.

Last week senior heads of service had been told to look at their “business continuity plans.”

They need to work out how they can carry on working during an outbreak.

Dr Turner said: “There’s a lot of activity, a lot of discussions going on and we’ll do our best to make sure we’re as prepared as possible to support our workforce and communities.”

Council leader, Councillor Rosemarie Harris reminded all at the meeting, that this was the same emergency planning team leading on Coronavirus as had been dealing with the recent flooding incidents.

Coronavirus has now spread to 70 countries including Wales which has one case reported.