With the approaching hurricane season, we will simultaneously manage hurricane responses while combating COVID-19. Isolation, social distancing, and quarantine are steps to disrupt the COVID-19 contagion. However, evacuation and sheltering actions, as currently practiced, are associated with increasing social interactions, which may promote the spread of the virus. This conflict between evacuation and sheltering practices with virus pandemic containment measures has important implications for population health and wellbeing, especially for vulnerable and medically fragile populations.

This Working Group will convene calls of state, county and local leaders, experts, and providers from public health, government, health care, community civic groups, and others to identify knowledge gaps, needs and concerns related to the upcoming 2020 hurricane season under the current public health crisis. Through these calls, the group will facilitate relationship-building, information and resource sharing, and co-learning to fill knowledge gaps to inform policies, procedures, and planning. The Working Group will focus on 6 topics: