Congressman Vern Buchanan was assured by the chief of the Doctors Hospital of Sarasota, where a presumptive coronavirus patient is being treated, that the hospital is taking every precaution possible to limit exposure to others. In an hour-long meeting at the hospital yesterday morning with Chief Executive Officer Robert Meade and other specialists, Buchanan was told the hospital was proceeding as if the patient had COVID-19 and was taking all possible precautions. Meade said they had the situation “under control” and that the hospital was doing everything possible to protect other patients, hospital staff and the community. He declined to discuss specifics of the patient’s condition given health privacy statutes. Meade said he was awaiting confirmation from the Centers for Disease Control to confirm the patient had coronavirus. Buchanan said he has spoken to Sarasota Memorial Hospital president David Verinder, who expressed assurances that his facility was prepared and ready should any cases of COVID-19 be reported there.

 

“Speed is critical to containing the threat,” said Buchanan, who was one of the first in Congress to call for the president to declare a public health emergency days before Trump did so. Buchanan also was one of the first to call for restricting flights into the country from China, the origin of the disease. The first two “presumptive” cases involved residents of Manatee and Hillsborough county — both counties in Buchanan’s congressional district. The United States recorded its first two deaths attributed to the coronavirus over the weekend.

 

Congressional leaders have discussed a supplemental appropriation to address the spread of the disease, but no timetable for passage has been set. Buchanan said the bill should be enacted this week and sent to the president’s desk to get the funding in the pipeline.