Mission

The Cities Readiness Initiative (CRI) is a federally funded effort to prepare cities and metropolitan areas to effectively respond to a large scale bioterrorist event by dispensing life saving medications to the entire population of Orange County within 48 hours of the decision to do so. The CRI is a collaborative effort designed to enhance preparedness at all levels of government and to provide a consistent nationwide approach to prepare for, respond to, and recover from a large-scale public health emergency.

What it means to you

The primary focus of the CRI program is to develop the capability to acquire & distribute resources of the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) to the population of Orange County. In order to optimize these efforts, community partnerships must be developed, maintained and enhanced throughout the county. These planning efforts will foster a working relationship within the community resulting in a cohesive and effective preparedness plan with the ability to effectively respond to and mitigate a public health emergency.

Once Federal and local authorities agree that the SNS is needed, medicines will be delivered to any state in the U.S. within 12 hours. The State of California and the County of Orange are engaged in planning to receive and dispense medicines to our community.

Point of Dispensing (POD) sites are dispensing locations designed to provide people who are currently healthy but may have been “exposed” and need prophylactic medication (to guard or prevent the spread or occurrence of disease or infection).  PODs are the traditional method of providing prophylaxis during a large-scale public health emergency.