Loading...
Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Response to COVID 19Copyrighted July 6, 2021 City of Dubuque Consent Items # 15. City Council Meeting ITEM TITLE: Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Response to COVID 19 SUMMARY: City Manager transmitting a summary of the response and activities of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to COVI D-19, providing a snapshot of the mechanics, accomplishments, and future recommendations for operation of the EOC in response to COVI D-19. SUGGESTED Suggested Disposition: Receive and File DISPOSITION: ATTACHMENTS: Description Type EOC Response to COVI D-19 - MVM Memo City Manager Memo EOC Response to Covid 19 Memo Staff Memo THE C DUUB_-_*._TE Masterpiece on the Mississippi TO: The Honorable Mayor and City Council Members FROM: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager SUBJECT: Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Response to COVID-19 DATE: June 30, 2021 Dubuque *Amrin Cia 2007-2012.2013 2017*2019 Fire Chief Rick Steines is transmitting a summary of the response and activities of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to the COVID-19, providing a snapshot of the mechanics, accomplishments, and future recommendations for operation of the EOC in response to COVID-19. I have approved the recommendation for de-escalation of the operation from activated to limited/monitoring related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic is far from being over. The EOC will be ready to adapt to any spikes in cases or other requests from City and County Departments should they become overwhelmed or need assistance. Staff will continue to monitor the local, state and national reports and support our providers as they continue to vaccinate our citizens. Emergency Support Functions will continue to operate and the Incident Management Team will continue to navigate the pandemic and request outside assistance as needed. Staff will continue to be vigilant and monitor requests from the Incident Management Team, hospitals, cities or the county. v Mic ael C. Van Milligen MCVM:jh Attachment cc: Crenna Brumwell, City Attorney Cori Burbach, Assistant City Manager Rick Steines, Fire Chief * )01 � EMERGENCY AkNA T GEMEN DUBUQUE COUNTY Thomas I. Berger, Coordinator Mike Wuertzer, Chairperson Dan Neenan, Vice -Chairperson TO: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager 14928 Public Safety Way Dubuque, IA 52002-8216 Phone: 563-589-4170 Fax: 563-589-0015 E-Mail: tom.berger@dbecoema.com FROM: Rick Steines, Fire Chief Thomas I. Berger, Emergency Management Coordinator SUBJECT: Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Response to COVID 19 DATE: June 23, 2021 INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this memo is to summarize the response and activities of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to the COVID-19. This memo provides a snapshot of the mechanics, accomplishments, and future recommendations for operation of the EOC in response to COVID-19. BACKGROUND: CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) In late 2019 a coronavirus was detected and soon made its way to the United States. On January 31, 2020, the United States Department of Health and Human Services declared a national public health emergency. Information sharing through webinars and emails with the Iowa Department of Public Health began in February. At that time, there were no cases recorded in the United States. There were many unknowns about the virus at the time it was first detected in the United States and subsequently in Iowa. On March 9, 2020, a proclamation of disaster emergency was declared in the State of Iowa following the first detected cases in Iowa on March 8', 2020. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global pandemic. On March 19, 2020, we had our first case in Dubuque County and unfortunately on March 24, 2020, Dubuque County recorded the first death of an Iowa resident. EMERGENCY OPERATIONS CENTER (EOC) PREPAREDNESS The City of Dubuque Management Team and EOC have a long history of disaster preparedness, offering training and holding exercises to be ready for any type of an event. Through the guidance from the City Manager and the support of the City of Dubuque Mayor and City Council, we conduct training using the National Incident Management System (NIMS), Incident Command System (ICS) and we have developed a Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan. We include annual exercises to meet state and federal requirements and to ensure we are ready for an emergency, natural or human made. The emphasis placed on disaster preparedness, EOC operations, training and exercises successfully proved to be important to our response to the pandemic. EOC ACTIVATION STATUS The City of Dubuque has an Administrative Policy that details the level of EOC activation to include monitoring, limited, partial, full, and advanced. The response status is upgraded or scaled back depending on the response needed to the event. The EOC was in the monitoring phase in February 2020, moving to the limited and partial phase in early March to full activation from April 2020 through May 2021. In June 2021 we decreased back to limited activation and continue to stand ready to ramp up our response if needed. DUBUQUE COUNTY HEALTHCARE PREPAREDNESS COALITION The Dubuque County Healthcare Preparedness Coalition Board includes the following members: • Mary Rose Corrigan, City of Dubuque Health Specialist • Patrice Lambert, Dubuque County Health Director • Stacey Killian, Visiting Nurse Association Director • Karen Vaassen, Unity Point Health — Finley Hospital • Tilly Frommelt, MercyOne Medical Center • Tom Berger, Dubuque County Emergency Management Coordinator This group was initiated and has been meeting for over fifteen years. The group works with funding provided to Dubuque County from the Iowa Department of Public Health to prepare for, respond to and recover from any Public Health Emergency. This group also prepares the agenda and shares information with the entire Dubuque County Healthcare Preparedness Coalition at quarterly meetings. The coalition is an all -encompassing group including health care facilities, long term care facilities, hospitals, fire, EMS, City and County staff. The Coalition has response plans and pre -identified appointments to fill in the Incident Command Structure for a response to a Public Health Emergency. The Coalition conducted an influenza tabletop exercise on December 12, 2019, that proved to be very beneficial in our response since the start of the Pandemic. Lessons learned from the exercise rolled into our response to the Pandemic and continue today. INCIDENT MANAGEMENT TEAM In early March 2020, the Incident Management Team (IMT) was activated and included Patrice Lambert, Mary Rose Corrigan, Stacey Killian and Tom Berger. This committee coordinated the local response to the Pandemic. Early on the IMT met multiple times per day and continued daily through May 2020. In June 2020 the IMT began to meet daily Monday through Friday with an occasional need to meet on the weekends. This continued until May of 2021 when we scaled back to 3-4 times per week. The IMT continues to meet multiple times per week and will do so for many months. The Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan is designed to follow state and federal response plans. The plan is broken down to Emergency Support Functions (ESFs). In response to an event, an ESF is activated to assist the IMT to perform duties and functions. The following ESFs were activated at some point during the pandemic and performed critical work in our local response: ESF 2 — Communications — led by 911 Communications Manager Mark Murphy ESF 4 — Fire — led by Fire Chief Rick Steines and local county fire chiefs. ESF 5 — Emergency Management led by EMA Coordinator Tom Berger • ESF 6 — Mass Care, Emergency Assistance, Housing and Human Services led by Housing and Community Development Director Alexis Steger and Human Rights Director Kelly Larson • ESF 7 — Resource Management led by EMA Coordinator Tom Berger • ESF 8 — Health and Medical led by Incident Management Team • ESF 15 — Public Information led by Public Information Officer Randy Gehl The activation of the ESFs provide the framework for a coordinated response to an event. ESFs serve as the lead to oversee project completion and they reach out to many partners to complete the tasks assigned to them by the IMT or Planning Section. Some of the actions that were performed by using the ESFs are below: • Isolation Shelter development — ESF6 • Bi-Weekly and then monthly outreach meetings for fire and emergency medical services agencies — ESF4 and ESF8 • Receipt and distribution of personal protective equipment — ESF7 • Request of state and federal support for incident response — ESF5 • Activation of EOC and coordination of incident action events — ESF5 • Operation of a Joint Information Center and conducting press releases — ESF15 • Law enforcement provided security and traffic direction at our vaccine Points of Distribution (POD) — ESF13 • Public Works and Engineering worked with logistics to assist with traffic signage and other design work related to PODs and Testing Sites. This event required an "all hands-on deck" approach. Our efforts to exercise regularly with all city departments to assist in an emergency proved to be successful. City departments were able to fill response requests from the IMT or EOC and subsequently fill positions within the incident command system structure. DISCUSSION CITY OF DUBUQUE PLANNING SECTION On Monday, March 2, 2020, a meeting was called to start the City of Dubuque response to the pandemic. The initial meeting included the following members City Manager Mike Van Milligan, Public Health Specialist Mary Rose Corrigan, EMA Coordinator Tom Berger, Fire Chief Rick Steines, Police Chief Mark Dalsing, City Attorney Crenna Brumwell, Assistant City Manager Teri Goodmann and Assistant City Manager Cori Burbach. As the response to the pandemic changed, Information Services Manager Chris Kohlman, Assistant Fire Chief Greg Harris and Public Information Officer Randy Gehl were added to the group. In the ICS structure this was determined to be the Planning Section and Chief Steines was identified as the Planning Section Chief. The planning section met weekly to develop an incident action plan for City departments. Each department was required to send a written report (ICS-201 Report) updating the Planning Section of their current status and also any needs for their department. The information received was processed and placed into an Incident Objectives Report (ICS-202) which established the goals and objectives for the next operational period. The operational periods were weekly from March 8, 2020, through June 12, 2020. From June 12, 2020, through September 3, 2020, the operational period was two weeks. Starting September, 2020, through June 2021, the Planning Section met monthly. The planning section reports were developed by the team, approved by the City Manager, and then distributed to City Department Heads for implementation of the goals and tasks for the next operational period. The main areas addressed in the documents included continuity of government to maintain critical services, information sharing and protect the public and employees. EOC ACTIVATION UPDATE FOR CITIES AND COUNTIES In May 2020, the EOC started to have full activation meetings to update all partners, internal and external. The information shared was collected through the IMT reports, City Planning Section reports, IDPH and CDC Guidance as well as other external information. These meetings were held on the same day and schedule as the Planning Section Meetings. All cities in the County were invited as well as City Department Heads, County Department Heads, Mayor Buol, Dubuque County Supervisors and other elected officials. We also had reports from community partners to include the Greater Dubuque Development Corporation, Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque, and United Way of Dubuque Area Tri-States. The meetings provided information sharing to all entities and updates from the IMT on the current status, incident priorities and future objectives. Cities were able to share information about closings and how they are responding to the pandemic. RECOMMENDATION At this time, it is our recommendation to de-escalate the operation from activated to limited/monitoring. The pandemic is far from being over. We will be ready to adapt to any spikes in cases or other requests from City and County Departments should they become overwhelmed or need assistance. We will continue to monitor the local, state and national reports and support our providers as they continue to vaccinate our citizens. ESFs will continue to operate and the IMT will continue to navigate the pandemic and request outside assistance as needed. We will continue to be vigilant and monitor requests from the IMT, hospitals, cities or the county. Immediate Future priorities will include the following: • Continue to promote vaccinations and assist in the delivery of vaccines as needed. • Process information received from the CDC, IDPH or any source in relation to variant strains and outbreaks in other areas of the country or world. • Continue the recovery process and complete the needed paperwork and requirements for FEMA reimbursement. • Develop an After -Action Plan (AAR) to gain insight, comments, criticisms and compliments on what worked and where we can improve for not only the next pandemic but future responses that require EOC activation. • Support the IMT for any assignments or projects as needed. Long Term Goals for the EOC • Incorporate and/or develop any needed plans, training, or exercises to address shortfalls in the AAR. • Continue to explore grants and funding opportunities as they are made available for follow up from the state or federal governments. We have dedicated many years planning, training, and exercising for an extended activation of the EOC. With the resources provided through grants and financial assistance offered by local governments, we were able to accomplish the goals and objectives to address the constantly changing issues with response to a pandemic. The EOC was able to complete projects and aided the IMT allowing them to focus on response operations. As the IMT continues to work on vaccination plans and other pandemic related problems, the EOC will continue to monitor and be ready to activate again if needed. We thank you for your continued support of the Dubuque County Emergency Management Agency and appreciate your consideration of our request to move to an incident monitoring activation level of the EOC.