Utah
- State Population: 3,280,800
- Local Health Departments: 13
- Frequent Public Health Emergencies: Infectious Disease Outbreaks, Wildland Fires, Flooding/Mudslides
- Key Emergency Operations Center Activations: 2020: COVID-19 Pandemic
- CDC PHEP Funding:
FY 2022: $7,461,137
FY 2021: $7,004,062
FY 2020: $6,823,464 - Public Health Crisis Response Funding
Mpox 2023 funding: $319,610
COVID-19 2021 funding: $19,750,412
COVID-19 2020 funding: $6,441,413
- Epidemiologists: 1
- Planners: 6
- Other: 5*
*Includes IT specialists, administrative staff, statisticians, and other positions
1 Career Epidemiology Field Officer
1 Preparedness Field Assignee
- Information Sharing
- Community Preparedness
- Emergency Operations Coordination
- Medical Surge
- Public Health Laboratory Testing
Utah’s lieutenant governor issued a call to action in February 2021 for medical and other volunteers to support COVID-19 mass vaccination sites. More than 5,000 people volunteered. Andrea Skewes, a PHEP-funded preparedness field assignee, led the initiative to centralize the volunteering process. Skewes helped write a volunteer management plan that outlined protocols for enrollment, credential verification, criminal background checks, and assignment to vaccination sites.
Andrea Skewes, a PHEP-funded preparedness field assignee in Utah, led the state health department’s COVID-19 response briefings in 2020 with local health departments, healthcare systems and providers, state legislative representatives, and state agency officials. The weekly meetings were key to communication and situational awareness. Attendees discussed best practices, outbreak responses, and research and data analyses. Skewes also developed a guide for state agencies and health systems for activating COVID-19 response activities.
In March 2018, the Utah Department of Health used PHEP funds to convert their federal medical station (FMS) into smaller, more rapidly deployable Utah Medical Stations. FMS are 250-bed shelters that can be set up during an emergency to care for displaced people with special health needs. Utah’s newly converted medical stations include enough beds, supplies, and medicines for 50 people for three days, improving the ability of local health departments to respond to mass casualty events.
During a routine screening to donate blood, a Utah resident was diagnosed with Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) that was eventually linked to a hospital employee misusing hospital drugs and syringes. The scale and scope of the investigation, numbering more than 7,200 potential exposures, required the use of the PHEP-established incident command system to manage and mitigate the outbreak. This command system was active from August 2015 to March 2016, resulting in more than 3,400 individuals being tested for HCV, and the identification of seven illnesses linked to the hospital employee.
