A dozen Biloxi firefighters receive results of COVID-19 tests. Here are the details.
Twelve Biloxi firefighters who were tested for coronavirus have received negative results, while a 13th firefighter is still waiting on the results and remains under self-quarantine at home, Biloxi Fire Chief Joe Boney said Friday.
So far, nine firefighters have tested positive for COVID-19 in Biloxi.
Now, a total of 22 Biloxi firefighters have felt the effects of possibly having the virus in one way or another due to self-isolation and other factors.
The fire chief believes it’s imperative to be open with firefighters and the public about any possible coronavirus diagnosis.
“No matter what it is, good or bad, I feel like they have a right to know what they are facing because it is not fair to them or to the department to try and hide something like that,” he said Friday. “You’ve got to be truthful with them. They’ve got to be able to trust you.”
He also believes the latest test results are good news for Biloxi firefighters.
“It shows that maybe what we are doing is working,” Boney said Friday. “We’ve done what we can do to the stations. We decontaminate the stations twice a day. We take temperatures twice a day and are filling out paperwork on all of it.”
In addition, firefighters are wearing protective gears, including masks, gloves and haz-mat suits, to calls to protect them from contracting the virus.
All nine of the confirmed cases of coronavirus in Biloxi firefighters are believed to have stemmed from one call for a cardiac emergency in West Biloxi.
All of those infected with the virus had either responded to the call or were around the firefighters who did within 24-to 48-hours.
After news reports on the number of firefighters who had started exhibiting symptoms of the virus but couldn’t get tested because their symptoms didn’t yet meet the criteria to do so, Boney said things changed.,
A doctor who works with paramedics provided the Biloxi Fire Department with test kits.
“Now, we have the ability to test ourselves,” Boney said. ”We were being lumped in with everybody else, but now we have the ability to do something ourselves.”
Paramedics are mostly performing the tests.
Though Boney is pleased that the majority of tests came back negative, he said he has some concerns because some people get tested and get a negative result at first, but then test positive when they exhibit more symptoms and are tested again.
This story was originally published April 10, 2020 at 4:25 PM.
