Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday announced a new project through several of his organizations that will provide mayors across the country with information on how to best mitigate and deal with the expanding coronavirus outbreak.
Mr. Bloomberg said the “coronavirus local response initiative” will be a collaboration between the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative and the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University.
“Together, we will ramp up a major new effort to empower local leaders, and we’re going to open up a new program for every local government in America,” Mr. Bloomberg said at a National League of Cities event, saying the program will be available for all mayors across the country.
Mr. Bloomberg, who ended his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination last week, said the program is designed to “supplement, not replace” the information on the virus coming from the federal government.
Mr. Bloomberg said it’s designed to take information coming from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) “and help provide guidance to mayors and local leaders on the big challenges they face.”
“That includes managing medical facilities, handling quarantines if necessary, deciding how to handle large pubic gatherings, and supporting people [who] are ill who have to stay at home because they’re exposed to the virus or because their workplace or school is closed,” he said.
Mr. Bloomberg said the new program will also offer guidance on crisis communications and public education programs.
“Our goals are to help mayors prevent the spread of the virus, help those who contract it recover, and protect the social and economic well-being of communities,” he said.
Before Mr. Bloomberg ended his presidential campaign last week, he had released a three-minute TV ad outlining some of the general steps he would take as president to try to combat the virus.
Earlier this week, he also announced a $2 million donation to go toward helping register black voters in key states ahead of the November election.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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