Testing is Part of the Answer
Public health units step up in response to the threat of COVID-19 By Kelly Hagen, NDU Communications
Perhaps the best defense against a molecular threat like the COVID-19 pandemic, so small it goes unseen by the human eye, is a similarly invisible force. Those society defenders against pandemics are our local public health units, located across our state. And they are staffed by trained, dedicated professionals like Daphne Clark, public information officer and protection team leader at Upper Missouri District Health Unit in Williston. “I think the best description of local public health that I have ever heard is that when we are doing our jobs well, no one sees us,” Clark said. “It is only when we fall short that we are seen. Other emergency responders fill important roles that are more visible. Local public health responders are not as visible, but we do fill an equally important role, especially during a public health crisis.” Clark has worked at UMDHU for more than 16 years. She started her career in public health as a general environmental health practitioner, then moved into 14
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becoming an emergency environmental health practitioner. In 2008, she began in her current position. She describes her day-to-day work requirements as promoting and public messaging for her health unit, which serves four counties – Divide, Williams, Mountrail and McKenzie – in the northwest corner of the state. Additionally, she is team leader for the UMDHU emergency preparedness program and environmental health programs. And her work duties have changed completely since the state’s first reported case of the novel coronavirus on March 11. “All of my time now is spent on COVID-19 response,” she said. “I spend most of my day connecting with partners to work on emergency plans or answering their questions about response.” UMDHU is one of 28 local public health units in the state of North Dakota. Seven of these units are multicounty health districts like UMDHU and serve wide swaths of geographic terrain. Clark said that UMDHU has an especially strong working relationship
