Spotlight Reponse to COVID-19

About the Program

Category: Risk and Emergency Management (Best in Category)

Year: 2021

Gila County, Arizona was once a hotspot with some of the highest rates of Covid-19 in the country and is now one of the only places to move beyond vaccine eligibility requirements. Outpacing many Arizona counties, Gila County Health Department has been recognized nationally for becoming one of the first counties in the nation and the first county in Arizona to open COVID vaccination to residents 18 and older. In efforts to reduce the number of increasing COVID-19-related illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths in Gila County, their Health & Emergency Management Department set up an aggressive communications campaign to ensure anyone who was eligible for the vaccine knew they were eligible. They attacked the pandemic as they would a fire during wildfire season. They set up the incident command in a similar manner. The incident command structure sets up a community-wide response in which people from all different departments and communities help get vaccines to residents. They focused on those critical to the response, providing direct care, and maintaining societal function, as well as those at highest risk for developing severe illness from COVID-19.The county reached out to health care organizations, hospitals, and physicians for help.