NYC Activates World Cup Health Command for 1 Million Visitors as MetLife Hosts 8 Matches
Updated
Updated · Gothamist · May 25
NYC Activates World Cup Health Command for 1 Million Visitors as MetLife Hosts 8 Matches
1 articles · Updated · Gothamist · May 25
June 1 marks the start of a special incident command system that NYC Health Commissioner Alister Martin says will run through July, with some staff reassigned full-time to World Cup-related public health response.
More than 1 million visitors are expected in the New York area during the tournament, and officials say the six-week footprint across all five boroughs and New Jersey requires a larger-than-usual response for risks including heat, food poisoning and infectious disease.
Bellevue, hospitals and emergency agencies have spent about a year running drills, including a four-day simulation moving fictional infectious-disease patients from LaGuardia to Bellevue and later exercises for mass-casualty and coordinated-attack scenarios.
New Jersey is also tightening its response system after preparations exposed delays in manually checking hospital capacity, replacing call-by-call coordination with predetermined patient-routing guidelines.
The World Cup buildup overlaps with Pride, the Puerto Rican Day Parade and America’s 250th birthday events, while health officials are also tracking Ebola outbreaks in Uganda and Congo and a U.S. measles surge.
Can officials truly safeguard millions of fans spread across 16 cities from a fast-moving outbreak?
Will the World Cup's massive health security plan become the costly new standard for all major public events?
With extreme heat now a 'near certain' threat, is hosting summer mega-events becoming an impossible public health challenge?