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Findlay city leaders hold Coronavirus briefing to address the community's concerns

Hancock County Health Commissioner says the city will get through this and that it's just a matter of changing a few things.

FINDLAY, Ohio — The city of Findlay is taking action against the spread of the coronavirus. 

On Thursday, city leaders, including the mayor, Hancock County health commissioner and city schools superintendent held a briefing on their plans. 

The city emphasized that although this is uncharted territory for most, it is not the time to panic, but instead the time to prepare. 

"We will get through this, it's just a matter of changing a few things in our lives," said Hancock County health commissioner, Karim Baroudi. 

"We wanted to show that we're really working as a community to address this. And we understand that when schools close that impacts child care. When child care is impacted that impacts people's ability to get to work. So it really has that profound rippel affect," added Findlay Mayor Christina Muryn. 

Findlay's Mayor Christina Muryn says the city is taking things seriously and working daily to keep you updated. 

In the meantime, leaders want to ensure you there is no need for major concern. 

"We don't have any cases currently in Hancock County. We're not watching anybody. There's no potential cases and we'd like to keep it that way. But we know that there's potential. The virus is still spreading. Our main concern is containment now," said Baroudi. 

For containment to happen, school superintendent, Ed Kurt, is following governor Mike Dewine's order to keep children out of school.

"Right now in grades 3 through 12 all of our students have their own devices. So we're set up for that. Very experienced with Google classroom and what we can do with that and other online options. In K-2nd we will do something similar to what's known as Blizzard bags so they get packets and work that they can do for a week," said Kurt. 

The process might sound challenging but the superintendent says he's prepared for it with the collaboration of parents and teachers. 

During the briefing the mayor also announced they will no longer be water shut offs. 

And they're asking you to make small changes such as washing your hands and to calling your doctor before flooding the emergency room. 

"Certainly we understand that we're really at the point that we're still trying to mitigate this issue so that hopefully it doesn't become any worse," said Muryn. 

The Health Commissioner says the city doesn't have any testing kits right now, but they are sending everything to be tested in Columbus. 

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