We were the first
A little over a year ago, King County became the first U.S. epicenter of an unprecedented global pandemic that robbed us of over 550,000 human lives in this country alone. Many know people affected by the disease. And some of us remember those among the more than half-million who died from COVID-19.
This year has brought contrasting experiences. For some, isolation and loneliness. For others, not a moment to themselves at home. Some people have taken on the added responsibility of being caregivers, teachers, and at-home parents—a burden that has disproportionately fallen to women. Others have lost jobs and homes.
In the fog of an evolving, once-in-a-generation disease and the ravages it has brought to our communities, just existing and being human is undertaking enough. In the Department of Community and Human Services, every person has stepped up to be an exceptional teammate and public servant, taking on an incredible and often-traumatic workload over the past year.
Thank you to our community
With our community’s continued cooperation, efforts from colleagues in other departments, and countless dedicated community organizations and partners—King County, with a population of more than 2.2 million (more than 15 entire states), has the second-lowest COVID-19 rate in the nation. This success is not an accident! Instead, it proves that cultivating connections and upholding bold leadership in the face of tough decisions saves lives.
Some teams kept showing up for in-person work to provide critical and emergency services. Different groups took on the extraordinary amount of work involved in stewarding nearly 400 new contracts that moved essential resources to communities in need. Others moved quickly to invent and support new types of pandemic response programs that became successful models across the nation. And though there is still much to learn about the pandemic, we are helping bring it to an end by operating high-volume mass vaccination sites.
The King County Department of Community and Human Services is proud to share our staff, partners, and community’s actions to make a difference during COVID-19. Through this interactive “A Year in Review Timeline,” take a look at different projects from DCHS that helped address the pandemic. There is much work ahead, but we hope to get the pandemic under control and work to restore and reconnect our community.
View our interactive presentation
You can view this presentation with full animation effects on Visme or scroll and interact with the one below. At the bottom of the page, you can download this as a PDF.
