Friday, March 14, 2025
3/14/2025
Despite only having an estimated population of 5,373,555 as of July 2023, South Carolina faces a variety of challenges to protecting public health during disasters and emergencies. One of the more noteworthy components of South Carolina’s public health threat environment is the state’s four (4) fixed nuclear facilities (FNFs), which place virtually all South Carolina residents and visitors within the 50-mile Emergency Planning Zone of at least one FNF, as well as two (2) nuclear facilities near the state line in North Carolina and Georgia. Equally viable public health threats, owing to diverse migrant-worker populations, steady population growth over the past decade and a growing community of parents opposed to vaccinating their children, include communicable diseases such as pandemic influenza, Hepatitis A and tuberculosis. In recent years, state emergency-response agencies have mobilized most frequently in response to threats and impacts to public health and the healthcare infrastructure from hurricanes and secondary flooding. Although hurricane activity has been relatively light since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, a major hurricane response on the order of Helene or Milton would be extremely complicating alongside a public health emergency warranting physical distancing in congregate care settings. In addition, COVID-19 vaccination rates in South Carolina lagged the national average overall and across most demographics during the pandemic, and vaccine hesitancy could become a factor in future concurrent events. In order to combat public health threats and to mitigate their impacts, the South Carolina Department of Public Health, as the state’s direct recipient of Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) assistance from the CDC, is committed to engaging every available resource to manage a sustained response and carrying out response activities across the key public health crisis response domains. We are equally committed to building on recent efforts to strengthen our response capabilities and on lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic response, which will in turn enable us to protect the public’s health in disasters and other public health emergencies. Over the course of any public health emergency for which crisis funding is awarded, DPH will address the public health problem in the following ways: a. Rapidly mobilizing emergency response operations to include surge testing; activation of medical countermeasures plans; and emergency staffing, contracts and procurement. b. Exercising and expanding upon existing public health continuity-of-operations (COOP) plans to ensure that pre-emergency public health outcomes are sustained. c. Continuously evaluating our efforts during the response and adapting response operations in response to changing science and evolving community needs. We will achieve the following outcomes by the time the public health Incident Command Structure (ICS) is deemed ready to stand down: a. Earliest possible identification and investigation of a known or suspected emerging infectious disease outbreak or other public health incident. b. Timely and sustained communication of risk and essential elements of information to partner agencies and the public. c. Timely and sustained implementation of intervention and control measures. d. Timely and sustained coordination with and support of response activities with partners.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).