Today, new metrics are available on COVID-Local.org for use by local leaders and state decision-makers as they consider steps to relax social distancing and re-open their communities.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, local leaders across the United States are working to bolster public health capacity, protect their communities from the disease, and support economic recovery by taking initial steps to re-open. COVID-Local.org now includes new easy-to-use metrics, freely available as interactive graphics and downloadable PDFs, to help local leaders assess existing response, pinpoint areas for action, and make decisions for moving to the next phase of re-opening. In determining how and when to expand and contract social distancing, local leaders can implement a phased approach to simultaneously slowing the spread of COVID-19 and addressing ongoing and significant economic hardships.
"As local leaders, our ongoing public health response to COVID-19 and re-opening our economy are inextricably linked,” Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said. “COVID-Local’s step-by-step framework and metrics for phased re-opening help local leaders make effective, strategic, and informed decisions to slow the spread of COVID-19 and begin to re-open businesses to a new normal.”
COVID-Local is a joint project of four nonprofit organizations: the Global Biological Policy and Programs team at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), the Center for Global Development, and the Georgetown University Center for Global Health Science and Security, in collaboration with Talus Analytics. The team behind this project is comprised of experienced experts in disease outbreak as well as former public health officials, academic researchers, and doctors, and the tools were developed in response to calls from local governments for more information on how to protect their communities. Information available on COVID-Local.org is informed by existing guidance from U.S. and global authorities, public health research findings, and lessons observed from countries that have been battling COVID-19 since January 2020.
Visit www.COVID-local.org to learn more about the metrics and other resources available.
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