COVID-19 Early Detection for Fisheries & Maritime

COVID-19 Early Detection JIP

Providing the technology and communications platform to allow the fishing and maritime sector to return to work safely and build a pilot that can be scaled to other sectors and regions. Every summer 10,000 plus people go to work in the Alaska based fisheries through Washington State. The entire fishery contributes more that $10 Billion dollars to our economy and is a vital part of our food security supply chain. However – How do we support and enable this activity and workforce in a way that is safe and not contributing to the spread of COVID-19, threatening small communities throughout Alaska and hence, the entire fishery itself? How can we monitor and track the health of the workforce who is particularly high risk due to the nature of the work?  

Project Scope

A partnership between Maritime Blue, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) and Discovery Health MD (DHM) will build, implement and scale an early detection system to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in this high risk workforce. 

  • IHME will build a survey, provide data analysis, and dashboard for early detection
  • Survey results will inform and support businesses internal data collection needs
  • DHM will work with the Fishing and Maritime industry to support operationalization
  • Engage in further technology partnership to ensure efficient and safe data transfer to and from vessels 
  • Scale the solution in concert with other contact tracing efforts to be utilized in other high risk workforce sectors and eventually to whole communities, regions and states.
Benefits

The overall goal for this Program is prevent the spread of COVID-19 as industries are implementing back to work initiatives, while maintaining the health of employees and the communities in which they live or operate. Strategic analyses that utilize the survey and testing data will allow us to look for a potential for resurgence, protect jobs and protect the global food supply chain.

Timeline

2020 – Present

Guidance for Maritime Employers
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Project Partners

This project is supported by the Washington State Department of Commerce’s US Economic Development Administration Safe Start grant.