University of Louisville Hospital preparing for arrival of the coronavirus

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Doctors now say they expect to see coronavirus begin to pop up in Louisville and are preparing for it.

University of Louisville Hospital officials said most of their facilities have space for isolation, but doctors said they are nowhere near that level with the virus threat yet.

"We have multiple different policies and procedures around how we would deal with even unknown infectious agents that we can tailor with something like a corona outbreak," said Dr. Jason Smith, U of L Health's chief medical officer.

As of Thursday afternoon, seven people in Kentucky had been tested for the virus. Four of those tests came back negative. Three are still pending.

"Right now, we have all the equipment we need as far as making sure we have the ability to protect our staff and other patients within the hospital," Smith said.

For now, testing at U of L Hospital runs through the Louisville Metro Health and Wellness. In most cases, Smith said, U of L would send a patient home after testing.

Dr. Jason Smith, U of L Health's chief medical officer.

"The first thing we would is determine the level of care the patient needs," he said. "If a patient walks in, and they're not having respiratory stress, they don't have a need to be hospitalized beyond that, we would test them and send them home."

Smith doesn't expect there to be an sudden influx of coronavirus patients and urged people to not avoid hospitals just because of the outbreak.

"The majority of patients are being treated at home," he said. "They don't need hospitalization."