MOUNT VERNON – As of Wednesday afternoon, no cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) have been confirmed in Knox County. But that doesn’t mean local residents aren’t concerned about what might happen if the pandemic arrives.
Knox Pages reporter Grant Pepper spoke with Knox County Health Commissioner Julie Miller today about the latest news concerning COVID-19. The conversation covered COVID-19 from a local angle and answered pressing local questions regarding the potential spread of the virus.
What is COVID-19? What does it take for a case to be “confirmed”? There have already been four confirmed cases in Ohio; is testing currently occurring in Knox County? If there are eventually confirmed cases in Knox County, what will happen? What protocol has been established by local officials to help prevent the disease from spreading? What can local residents do, right now, to help themselves and others?
Those questions are answered here:
Julie Miller has been Knox County’s health commissioner since 2010. She has over 30 years of experience in the health field, having worked as an administrator, nursing educator, and as a public health professional. She is a registered nurse and has a master’s degree in nursing.
Prior to coming to Knox County, Miller was the director of nursing at the Union County Health Department in Marysville. She has also been the director of nursing at the Morrow County and Richland County health departments and was a public health nurse at the Delaware County Health Department.
Additionally, Miller has worked as the health services director with the Community Health Access Project (CHAP) in Mansfield, an assistant professor at MedCentral College of Nursing in Mansfield, and a nursing clinical instructor at Otterbein College in Westerville.
Miller grew up in Mount Vernon and is a 1975 graduate of Mount Vernon High School. She entered the healthcare field after becoming an LPN in 1976. She earned her associate’s degree in nursing in 1992 and went on to receive her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Otterbein College.
She has also completed work in the doctor of nursing program at Case Western Reserve University.
Additional resources:
- From the CDC: What is COVID-19? (LINK)
- From the Ohio Department of Health: The current situation in Ohio (LINK)
- From the Knox County Health Department: Local updates (LINK)
