CDP continues to build on Caribbean Area Initiative

Since the beginning of 2021, FEMA’s Center for Domestic Preparedness has recorded more than 1,300 Virtual Instructor-Led Training (VILT) course completions by responders in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

These VILTs spanned a wide variety of topics but were mostly concentrated around healthcare, such as Hospital Incident Command System, Health Sector Emergency Preparedness II, Patient Management: Management of a Highly Infectious Disease Patient in a Healthcare Facility, Special Needs Population Considerations During Emergency Response, Pathogens of Special Concern, and Emergency Medical Response Awareness for CBRNE Incidents.

The VILTs are part of the center’s Caribbean Area Initiative, which expands on in-person training the CDP conducted for more than 1,000 Puerto Rican public health and healthcare workers in 2018 and 2019, following hurricanes Irma and Maria.

As part of that initiative, members of the CDP’s Training and Education Directorate met with representatives of FEMA’s Region 2 earlier this month to gain a better understanding of the current and future training needs of responders in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. FEMA’s Region 2 oversees federal emergency management activities in eight tribal nations, the states of New York and New Jersey, and these two locations.  

This and similar meetings in the future will ensure those things identified in various vulnerability assessments of the territories are addressed as the Caribbean Area Initiative continues.