State Pandemic Influenza Operations Plans

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security, is required by the National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza: Implementation Plan (see Action #6.1.1.2 ) to conduct a review of state Pandemic Influenza Operations Plans.

The review will involve the critique of information provided by the states. HHS will provide feedback so plans can be revised or further tested.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Coordinating Office of Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response, is responsible for receiving all state operations plan submissions. States were required to submit the information to the CDC by April 16, 2007.

Several federal departments identified priorities, capabilities, and benchmarks that are critical to a pandemic influenza response. These are the basis for the criteria that will be used by the federal departments to assess each state operations plan

A template was provided to assist states with organizing their submissions.

The review criteria, scoring schema, and list of departments leading review groups are contained in the Federal Department Point of Contact Letter, dated January 26, 2007.