Mecklenburg County activated crisis plan without telling the public, email shows
Ten days before putting restrictions on public gatherings, Mecklenburg County quietly activated its crisis management plan, emails obtained by the Charlotte Observer show.
In an email sent March 6 to county commissioners from County Manager Dena Diorio, Diorio said she authorized a “Level 2 activation” of Mecklenburg’s crisis plan in response to the new coronavirus.
And Diorio planned to keep the crisis level 2 activation private, according to her message to elected officials.
Level 2 crisis activation means the crisis would have “significant impact on multiple county departments,” according to Mecklenburg County’s “Crisis Management Plan,” which was reviewed by elected officials in January during an annual retreat.
In her March 6 email to commissioners, she wrote: “While the following information is not necessarily confidential, I would appreciate the information not being shared with the public. We want to be sure we are prepared but do not want to create panic.”
The email, along with 1,219 other documents, was released to the Observer this week following a public records request.
There are three levels of crisis plan activation in the county: Level 1 for a “major incident,” Level 2 for a “significant incident,” and Level 3, for a “minor incident,” according to the county report.
Two days before Diorio’s email, county Public Health Director Gibbie Harris told county commissioners in a meeting the department had no recommendations on social distancing as it was still waiting on guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The county’s advice to residents at the time was to wash their hands and cover coughs, Harris told commissioners in a March 4 meeting.
Nearly a week later, the county reported its first case of COVID-19. And on March 15, the county issued a state of emergency declaration.
On March 16, Harris banned mass gatherings of more than 50 people.
‘We waited ... to tell the public’
Diorio on Friday defended activating the crisis plan without a public announcement, saying during a news conference the plan is an “internal mechanism.”
“Yes, we triggered it, and we waited a couple of days to tell the public about it, but that was all part of our planning,” Diorio said Friday.
Diorio said the plan was activated before Mecklenburg had a reported COVID-19 case in order to begin planning for cases.
“We were anticipating that we were going to have cases,” she said. “That allowed us to elevate our game, start the planning.”
For example, she said, the activation helped county officials plan future actions, such as leasing hotels for people who need to quarantine but have no shelter. The county’s planning also led to issuing a stay at home order days before Gov. Roy Cooper issued a statewide order, Diorio said. Other communities in North Carolina also issued local stay at home or shelter in place orders before Cooper’s statewide directive.
“All of that pre-planning has allowed us to get to the position where we are today, in which we are leading the state in COVID response,” Diorio said.
This story was originally published April 3, 2020 at 3:41 PM.
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