Dr. Eliesel Lacerda De La Cruz of Southcoast Health joined us this morning on the Rock and Fox Show to share his insight about the coronavirus here on the SouthCoast and around the world.

Listen to the full interview here:

Responding to the news that the entire nation of Italy has been placed under quarantine, Dr. Lacerda De La Cruz believes that officials in that country simply determined that the measures they were taking were not enough and that the virus was "too hard to contain."

Our big question to the doctor was, could he imagine seeing something like the Italian quarantine happen in parts of the United States?

Dr. Lacerda De La Cruz believes that while we're far from it, if the total number of infected people continues to increase, then drastic measures such as closing schools and limiting social outings may be something that he could envision.

The doctor agreed that avoiding long plane trips, cruises, and unnecessary travel is a wise move.

As far as stocking up for an extended quarantine, the doctor recommending thinking about what your potential medical needs might be.

"I'd make sure you have enough Tylenol and ibuprofen on hand. You'd probably want to stock up on cough medicine to ease the symptoms in case you contract the virus," he said. "You'll want to make sure you have several weeks worth of any other prescription medications that you might regularly take."

Keeping a healthy stock of non-perishable food items would also be an important move.

The best-case scenario is that none of these measures will be necessary.

"The golden rule," said the doctor, "and I'll say it again and again – WASH YOUR HANDS and do it often."

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