Two Heluna Health employees working in the Center for Preparedness and Response and Center for Infectious Disease at the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) received an award in May for their exceptional support of public health efforts. The annual Public Health Acknowledging My Efforts (PHAME) award honors outstanding contributions that advance the mission and goals of CDPH in serving the community.
Before the pandemic, the Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity (ELC) team was quite small. However, with the announcement of significant COVID-19 funding, it became clear that a dedicated team within CDPH was necessary to manage these grants and ensure that both state and local health department needs were met. Initially, the funding was nearly $500 million but quickly grew to over $4 billion to support the COVID-19 response. The ELC management team collaborated with various groups, including the Testing Task Force, the COVID Control Branch, the COVID laboratory, and the Therapeutics team, to effectively respond to the pandemic.
