Drafter
Clerk 07/08/2020
Title
A MOTION requesting that the King County office of emergency management and public health - Seattle & King County work collaboratively to update the King County Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan, the Regional Hazard Mitigation Plan, the Regional Coordination Framework, continuity of operations plans, the King County Continuity of Government Plan and all other relevant emergency management plans and documents to address the risks from and response to pandemics, incorporating lessons learned from the COVID-19 outbreak, and to develop a pandemic response plan for King County.
Body
WHEREAS, on February 29, 2020, public health - Seattle & King County confirmed the first cases of the novel coronavirus ("COVID-19"), including one death, in the county, and
WHEREAS, COVID-19 is a respiratory disease that can result in serious illness or death and can easily spread from person to person; and is classified by the World Health Organization as a pandemic that spreads easily from person to person and may result in serious illness or death, and
WHEREAS, as of April 23, 2020, King County had reported 5,569 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and at least 384 individuals in King County had died as a result of the virus, and
WHEREAS, while COVID-19 is the worst pandemic to affect King County in several generations, the possibility of pandemics of similar or greater impact in the future is omnipresent, and changing climatic conditions are expected to multiply the threat of zoonotic and other pandemics, and
WHEREAS, the mission of the office of emergency management is "to provide for the effective direction, control and coordination of county government emergency services functional units, and to provide liaison with other governments and the private, nongovernmental sector, in compliance with a state-approved comprehensive emergency management plan and to serve as the coordinating entity for cities, county governmental departments and other app...

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