Officials: Anniston virus quarantine plans canceled

The news was met with applause, but also caution.

Calhoun County officials gathered Sunday afternoon to discuss legal measures to keep Americans who have tested positive for coronavirus from being quarantined at a facility in Anniston.

As the meeting unfolded before a packed room, Sen. Richard Shelby and Rep. Mike Rogers said the plan to bring the patients to Alabama has been cancelled. Residents clapped to hear the news, while some still asked if plans could change again. Nevertheless, officials assured residents they still plan on exploring any legal avenues to make sure that the transfer doesn’t happen.

“We’re going to continue on,” Calhoun County Commission Chairman Tim Hodges said. The Anniston City Council plans a 9 a.m. meeting Monday and Anniston city and council officials are planning a joint news conference at 11 a.m. with Rogers to address concerns.

However, officials said there are no coronavirus patients currently at the Center for Domestic Preparedness in Anniston.

“They told us there are not any here,” Hodges said. There are advance teams who had been logistically preparing at the center for the coming of patients. The CDP trains emergency responders from across the nation in responding to chemical, radiological and biological events through the Department of Homeland Security. The training deals with natural disasters as well as possible acts of terrorism.

Hodges said local governments were considering an injunction to simply give them time to prepare if patients were moved to the center. Calhoun County EMA Director Michael Barton said officials were briefed by the Department of Health and Human Services, but information was “conflicting, to be honest.”

That was not a vote of confidence, after officials said they were blindsided by an announcement on Saturday that the patients would be coming to the facility, located on the former Fort McClellan property.

“It seems like they had not fully developed their plan and did not have a plan that was ready to be implemented,” Barton said. What concerned them, Hodges said, was that the CDP is a training center and not a quarantine facility. Others raised concerns that local workers and area hospitals had not received training or equipment to deal with any issues related to the patients, if needed.

It’s not the first time the CDP has been the reason for a health concern. In late 2016, FEMA revealed that almost 10,000 first responders training there had unknowingly trained with a toxic form of ricin over the course of four years. But the government said no CDP personnel or students were harmed during that time.

An overflow crowd of residents came to the commission meeting, asking for officials to make assurances that there were no patients at the CDP and that they would fight to prevent a transfer.

Bobby Foster, who works on the former McClellan property, said there is already too much misinformation in the community to deal with.

“This is wild fire on social media,” he told the commission. “People think they’re already here. You need to get ahead of this.”

Dora Jones, a resident of Anniston, said she wanted to be “humane,” but wanted to know if there would be specific staff to care for patients. “Even if they quarantine them in the building, if someone in the building came down with the disease, they would have to go to one of our local hospitals,” she said.

Another resident who spoke at the meeting said his biggest fear was “lack of knowledge.”

In neighboring Oxford, the city council had planned an emergency meeting Sunday afternoon, but adjourned it after hearing from Shelby and Rogers that the plan would not be moving forward.

Council President Chris Spurlin said the city was concerned.

“We were concerned on such short news about the evacuees being moved, afraid that our emergency personnel might not be prepared with such a short notice,” he said.