Office of Public Health Preparedness

The Hawaii State Department of Health (DOH) has a mission to protect and improve the health and environment for all people in Hawaii, and the Office of Public Health Preparedness (OPHP) plays a key role. OPHP’s efforts prevent, plan, mitigate, respond, and recover from natural and human-caused public health emergencies and threats, and works with the community to help the public prepare.

OPHP prepares for natural and humanmade disasters, emerging infectious diseases, epidemics, pandemics, terrorism, accidents that impact human health (e.g., bioterrorism, chemical emergencies, radiological emergencies, nuclear attack), and other public health emergencies, including a major role in DOH’s COVID-19 response.

Funded by the Hospital Preparedness Program (HPP)-Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) cooperative agreement with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). OPHP coordinates the Hawaii DOH’s emergency preparedness activities and facilitates DOH’s roles and responsibilities to protect the public’s health and safety in the event of an emergency or disaster, and supports the Department Operations Center (DOC), a coordination center dedicated to internal agency incident management and response.

OPHP also coordinates Hawaii’s smallpox vaccination program, administers the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) for distribution of emergency pharmaceuticals, and collaborates with the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (HI-EMA), Hawaii Healthcare Emergency Management (HHEM), county/city department of emergency management (DEM), civil defense agencies, and other related stakeholders in developing and implementing state and local response plans and functional exercises for public health emergencies and disasters.

 

Visit our public-facing website | PrepareNOWHawaii.org

Follow us @PrepareNOWHI | Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube

 

COVID-19 Prevent the spread of COVID-19 and reduce its impact on our communities, click HERE. How has the pandemic affected Hawaii? Visit the Hawaii Department of Health (DOH) COVID-19 websites, click HERE and HERE. COVID-19 FAQs (frequently asked questions) from the Hawaii DOH, click HERE. | Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) website. COVID-19 Vaccines and Boosters FAQs, click HERE | Hawaii DOH COVID-19 page (hawaiicovid19.com/vaccine) | CDC website (www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/faq.html). Volunteer with the Hawaii Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) to help your community during disease outbreaks and other public health emergencies, click HERE. No medical experience required.  Multilingual COVID-19 resources, click HERE.