Our Response Efforts Around COVID-19

These are extraordinary times for public health. Not only are we at heightened concern for the communities we serve, but we’re also extending that concern to our families, friends, and neighbors, to local businesses and restaurants, and our hospitals and clinics. As we redouble our efforts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, our work, expertise, and actions are needed more than ever. Our roles will be expanding in ways that will rapidly unfold, and NACCHO wants to emphasize that we’re here for our colleagues throughout the country, ready to respond to the best of our abilities.

We need to hear from you! If you’re with a local health department, please submit your stories on this short form about your COVID-19 response efforts: https://www.naccho.org/programs/coronavirus. This feedback is critical to our work to advocate on your behalf.

NACCHO Releases Local Health Department COVID-19 Directory
NACCHO has recently released a directory of local health department (LHD) contact information for COVID-19. To locate the best point of contact for COVID-19 inquiries, access NACCHO’s LHD COVID-19 directory.

NACCHO’s activation in this pandemic is a Level 2, with moderate staff engagement required to serve on the response team and is transitioning from a robust Incident Command System (ICS) structure to a modified Incident Management Team structure. NACCHO continues to be engaged in the FEMA-HHS National Response Coordination Center (NRCC) efforts as part of the ASPR Secretary Operations Center (SOC) and the CDC Emergency Operations Center (EOC) that are activated and co-located within the NRCC. This allows daily coordination between NACCHO and federal partners on behalf of the nation’s local health departments.

We have also set up a dedicated COVID-19 Virtual Community, a secure platform where LHDs can post questions to fellow colleagues, raise issues to NACCHO, and find resources from federal partners and other LHDs. The COVID-19 Virtual Community is now open to all local health department staff. To access the community, you will need to log in using your MyNACCHO account credentials and be affiliated with a local health department. If you have any problems accessing the COVID-19 Virtual Community, please make sure your LHD affiliation is correctly listed under the organization field in the ‘My Information’ section of your MyNACCHO profile or email membership@naccho.org with your name, LHD affiliation, and role to be properly added to our system.

We have begun bi-weekly calls with key NACCHO workgroups and periodic all LHO calls to facilitate real-time discussion and feedback related to the ongoing response.

At this time, NACCHO's primary objectives for the response are to:

• Maintain situational awareness, at both the national/federal and local level;
• Support all stakeholders through the constant sharing of information to help protect the public. View the LHD COVID-19 Response resource list;
• Facilitate the sharing of information from the federal to the local level. View NACCHO's Policy and Advocacy Work;
• Advocate for federal funding for the COVID-19 response and public health infrastructure for the future. View details of federal funding already enacted;
• Understand and be responsive to member needs and requests;
• And convey the critical role of local health departments during ongoing outbreaks. View NACCHO in the News.

The webinar recording for Enforcement of Physical Health Protections for Front-line Workers may be found here.