Public Health Emergencies

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A public health emergency is anything that causes, or could cause injuries or illness to a large number of people. Public health emergencies include the following:

• Infectious disease outbreaks/pandemics
• Health-endangering effects of severe weather, natural disasters and  power outages
• Incidents resulting in mass casualties
• Toxic chemical or radiological releases
• Acts of bioterrorism.

Please use the following guidelines to determine how to respond:

• If this is an emergency, call 9-1-1. 
• To report a natural or manmade emergency that may have public health consequences for the community, call Carver County Dispatch at 952-361-1231.
• For a poisoning emergency, call the Minnesota Poison Control System at 1-800-222-1222.

For other health concerns, please use the following guidelines:

• If you are ill, call your healthcare provider.
• If you think you are ill from eating food in a public setting, call the Minnesota Foodborne Illness Hotline at 651-201-5655 or 1-800-FOOD ILL (toll free).
• If you have had physical contact with a bat, call your healthcare provider.  If you find a bat in your home, capture it.  Wait until regular business hours to call the Minnesota Department of Health at 651-201-5414 for advice.
• If you are a physician with an infectious disease issue, call the Minnesota Department of Health at 651-201-5414 or 1-877-676-5414, anytime.  After hours, you will be able to leave a message and the on-call staff will return your call.

Public Health will provide public information during a local health emergency, through the County website, the ReadyCarver.org or ListoCarver.org websites, and/or through the local media.

For persons with limited English speaking ability, information is available through ECHO (Emergency Community Health Outreach) at 651-224-3344 or at echominnesota.org.

ECHO Facebook site       

If you have a non-emergency question about any type of a public health emergency, call Carver County Public Health at (952) 361-1329 during regular business hours, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Public Health Alerts

• 5-10-12 Health officials aim to help prevent illness and death from hot weather with new Extreme Heat Toolkit
• 5-3-12 May 6 exercise will evaluate new strategy for protecting public during a health emergency
• 4-4-12 Early spring leads to an early start to the tick-borne disease season