June 2026
A Note From Kelly
It is the time of FIFA World Cup 2026.
As FIFA World Cup 2026 activities continue across our region through July 6, healthcare, emergency management, public health, and response partners remain engaged in maintaining readiness and monitoring conditions. The planning, information-sharing, coordination, training and exercises conducted over the past year have strengthened our collective ability to respond should a crisis occur and reinforced the trusted relationships that enable coordinated action when it matters most.
This has prepared us for one of the largest events hosted in our region.
This month, I’m highlighting some of those tools, trainings and exercises that will support readiness through each stage of the games and community events. Many of these resources will continue to be refined based on operational insights and lessons observed during FIFA activities. Updates include ongoing Disaster Medical Coordination Center (DMCC) planning and coordination efforts, as well as new work underway to expand regional hospital capacity for infectious disease identification, testing, and patient management.
And as summer progresses, preparedness activities continue with a focus on severe weather, wildfire and air quality impacts including recent challenges addressed by partners in Spokane.
We continue to monitor developing risks and appreciate your ongoing collaboration and supporting Washington’s readiness and resilience. As always, we welcome your feedback and the information you suggest we address through the info@nwhrn.org.
Making Progress – Always On for You
A Day in the Life: FIFA World Cup 2026 Match Day
Each match day, the Network operates under a heightened Level 1 activation posture, deploying a dedicated liaison in the Seattle Emergency Operations Center (EOC), while our State Liaison coordinates systemic needs virtually. Our team is helping maintain an active voice in multi-agency briefings across the region, participating in regular conference calls with many of you, including the Seattle OEM, State ESF-8, the King County EOC, and Pierce County EOC.
Additionally, our team co-hosts dedicated coordination meetings with the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) on every single match day to ensure our regional healthcare messaging and strategy are perfectly unified standing ready to coordinate statewide healthcare needs, participating in multi-agency briefings, and co-hosting healthcare coordination calls with the Washington State Department of Health. These efforts are helping to ensure you and our healthcare partners receive timely situational awareness and maintain a unified – data informed – operational picture.
Between matches, the Network’s 24/7 Duty Officer, on-call Incident Commander, and the Situational Awareness Unit continue to monitor non-FIFA healthcare impacts and potential risks, including wildfire activity, extreme heat, air quality conditions, transportation disruptions, cyber threats and other incidents that could affect your team’s or organization’s healthcare operations.
You’ve been on the readiness journey with our team for over a year. An important aspect of this planning has included providing our monthly WATrac New User Orientation and WATrac Patient Tracking Training to help ensure hospitals can rapidly account for patients, support family reunification, and coordinate care during an MCI or major medical surge.
In the coming weeks, we’ll continue to share and integrate learnings from this event into our operational planning.
Disaster Medical Coordination Center (DMCC) Planning
Thanks to our DMCC partners who contributed to development of the NWHRN DMCC Framework and DMCC Operational Annex — they’ve now been completed, shared with response partners and available on the Network website. As we progress through FIFA World Cup 2026, summer responses and exercises, we will undoubtably have learnings that will continue to inform these processes and will update documentation as needed.
Our regional DMCC leads continue to work with the Network and response partners to shape their regional annexes, which capture how each region uniquely supports their counties through regional DMCC placement. We expect this work with you to be completed and exercised by the end of this year.
Special Pathogens Readiness Communication is Key
Special pathogen readiness is essential to ensure patients get good care while keeping staff safe, and communication is imperative for our shared success. A Special Pathogen Tip Sheet can be access Special Pathogens Tip Sheet.pdf.
This current Ebola outbreak is a good example of the importance of coordination and communication between healthcare and public health.
The Network brings subject matter experts together in both areas to ensure consistent communication, situational awareness and system coordination are readily available and rapidly deployed when needed.
Note that while travelers returning to the U.S. are identified as low/very low risk, all of healthcare must remain vigilant.