Fiscal Note
No appropriation required.
Title
Honoring our public health and health care heroes.
Body
WHEREAS, COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) is an illness caused by a virus that can transmit from person to person and has spread across the world, creating a global pandemic that is having catastrophic impacts on human life, our community, and our economy; and,
WHEREAS, the United States recorded its first resident diagnosed with COVID-19 on January 21, 2020, and subsequently lost more people than were lost during World War II; and,
WHEREAS, Madison confirmed its first case of the virus on February 5, 2020; and,
WHEREAS, in the absence of sustained federal leadership, local public health officials, including Public Health Madison and Dane County, took bold actions to protect residents from the virus, including moving swiftly to create the state’s first public health order, creating one of the state’s first mask orders, creating a data dashboard to make information easily accessible and transparent to the public, and restructuring agency operations to focus on COVID-19 and prepare the City and County for the battle ahead while maintaining other public health services; and,
WHEREAS, Public Health Madison and Dane County has doubled its workforce to do outreach and education, contact tracing and case follow-up, make testing accessible to all community members, and develop plans to coordinate and administer vaccine with health care partners to all Dane County residents; and,
WHEREAS, area health care workers assumed new roles, developed and implemented new protocols and processes, worked diligently to conserve precious resources including personal protective equipment, while showing our community compassion through their resilience and ingenuity in the face of uncertainty and high stress; and,
WHEREAS, in addition to caring for COVID-19 patients, UnityPoint Health-Meriter modified programs and support to continue safe mental health and substance use programs, expanded ...
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