In an effort to increase preparedness should an emergency situation arise, Guthrie County Public Health (GCPH) will be conducting an emergency management exercise next week. The exercise will be on Wednesday, May 16th at the Guthrie County Fairgrounds and Adair-Casey/Guthrie Center High School. The exercise will involve pre-selected participants, including members of local senior living communities and high school students.

GCPH Executive Director Jotham Arber describes what the participants will experience during the exercise. “This year we are going to target immunization distribution through what we call a POD, a Point of Distribution. What we are hoping to do is exercise our capabilities to vaccinate our entire County population within a 48 hour window…We’ll be practicing our emergency management skills, our public health skills, and just kind of seeing where we are in a readiness factor for an H1N1 type situation.”

Arber hopes to turn this exercise into an annual event with a more open, community based objective. To hear more about the exercise, and other health related topics, listen to Arber on today’s Let’s Talk Guthrie County program.