{"id":13827,"date":"2025-06-26T16:53:47","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T20:53:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/news\/?page_id=13827"},"modified":"2025-06-26T16:53:47","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T20:53:47","slug":"virginia-department-of-health-participates-in-tranquil-passport-exercise","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/news\/public-relations-contacts\/archived-news-releases\/2025-regional-news-releases\/virginia-department-of-health-participates-in-tranquil-passport-exercise\/","title":{"rendered":"Virginia Department of Health Participates in Tranquil Passport Exercise\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">June 25, 2025<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559685&quot;:-90,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;469777462&quot;:[10530],&quot;469777927&quot;:[0],&quot;469777928&quot;:[4]}\"><br \/>\n<\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"none\">Media Contact:<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"none\"> Brookie Crawford, <\/span><a href=\"mailto:brookie.crawford@vdh.virginia.gov\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">brookie.crawford@vdh.virginia.gov<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559685&quot;:-90,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;469777462&quot;:[8730,10530],&quot;469777927&quot;:[0,0],&quot;469777928&quot;:[1,4]}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><b><span data-contrast=\"none\">Virginia Department of Health Participates in Tranquil Passport Exercise<\/span><\/b><br \/>\n<i><span data-contrast=\"none\">Exercise Validates Capabilities to Move Infectious Patients<\/span><\/i><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335551550&quot;:2,&quot;335551620&quot;:2,&quot;335559739&quot;:0}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_13829\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13829\" style=\"width: 205px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-13829\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/06\/1000000705.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"205\" height=\"273\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/06\/1000000705.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/06\/1000000705-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 205px) 100vw, 205px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-13829\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">VDH COO Christopher Lindsey, Northern Regional Epidemiologist Denise Sockwell, and Deputy Northern Regional Epidemiologist Monica Solis at Tranquil Passport exercise<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">RICHMOND, Va. \u2013 This week the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) joined with state, local and federal partners to take part in the four-day <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/aspr.hhs.gov\/newsroom\/Pages\/Tranquil-Passport-Exercise-Kickoff-25June2025.aspx\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Tranquil Passport exercise<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"none\">. The purpose of the exercise is to test and validate Virginia and the nation\u2019s capabilities to safely and efficiently transport highly contagious patients to regional treatment facilities.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559739&quot;:0}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u201cExercises like this one allow the rare opportunity to fully simulate the communication, coordination, and collaboration necessary to ensure the movement safely of American citizens who may have been exposed to a highly infectious disease and need to be brought back to the United States for treatment,\u201d said Northern Region Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Jeffrey Walker. \u201cIt takes a full complement of federal, state, regional, local, and private sector agencies and their resources to conduct an operation like this safely and securely. Our partners here in Virginia with the Virginia State Police, Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA), Northern Virginia Emergency Response System (NVERS), and Virginia Department of Emergency Management all work together to ensure we meet the needs of our citizens.\u201d<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;335551550&quot;:1,&quot;335551620&quot;:1,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-13828 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/06\/1000000713.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"283\" height=\"377\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/06\/1000000713.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/06\/1000000713-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 283px) 100vw, 283px\" \/>The exercise is the culmination of months of planning with more than 50 partner organizations. The scenario for the full-scale exercise involved the moving of several American patients with a simulated highly infectious disease from Toronto, Canada to hospital facilities from New York to Georgia over the course of four days.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559739&quot;:0}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Staff from VDH and the above-mentioned Virginia\u00a0agencies participated on Tuesday and Wednesday, June 24 and 25. Simulated patients were transported by air to Virginia, where they were moved using <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/aspr.hhs.gov\/newsroom\/Pages\/PBCU-22May2025.aspx\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">a Portable Biocontainment Unit (PBCU)<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"none\"> to Medstar Washington Hospital Center, Children\u2019s National Medical Center, and Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559739&quot;:0}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">The PBCU is a new resource used to isolate and transport patients with highly infectious diseases. The unit can be customized to transport up to 10 patients via air or on a specialized trailer pulled by a semi-truck. The PBCU allows for continuous treatment of multiple patients isolated in the unit and for onboard care teams to switch out during longer transportation.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559739&quot;:0}\">\u00a0 Take <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/shorts\/oSF2LlT22fQ\">a tour of the PBCU<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Tranquil Passport is just one of many preparedness exercises that the VDH participates in routinely to test and validate processes and procedures. Lessons learned from exercises like Tranquil Passport help VDH enhance readiness to respond to all hazards, including bioterrorism, infectious disease outbreaks and other public health emergencies.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559739&quot;:0}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">For more information about the mission of VDH, please visit <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/news\/2025-news-releases\/virginia-health-officials-investigating-another-potential-measles-exposure-in-northern-virginia\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">our website<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"none\">.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559739&quot;:0}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span data-contrast=\"none\"># # #<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335551550&quot;:2,&quot;335551620&quot;:2,&quot;335559739&quot;:0}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>June 25, 2025 Media Contact: Brookie Crawford, brookie.crawford@vdh.virginia.gov\u00a0\u00a0 Virginia Department of Health Participates in Tranquil Passport Exercise Exercise Validates Capabilities to Move Infectious Patients\u00a0 RICHMOND, Va. \u2013 This week the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) joined with state, local and federal partners to take part in the four-day Tranquil Passport exercise. The purpose of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":444,"featured_media":0,"parent":12292,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[681,1034,1033,1035],"class_list":["post-13827","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","tag-emergency-preparedness","tag-exercise","tag-infectious-diseases","tag-tranquil-passport"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Virginia Department of Health Participates in Tranquil Passport Exercise\u00a0 - Newsroom<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/news\/public-relations-contacts\/archived-news-releases\/2025-regional-news-releases\/virginia-department-of-health-participates-in-tranquil-passport-exercise\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Virginia Department of Health Participates in Tranquil Passport Exercise\u00a0 - Newsroom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"June 25, 2025 Media Contact: Brookie Crawford, brookie.crawford@vdh.virginia.gov\u00a0\u00a0 Virginia Department of Health Participates in Tranquil Passport Exercise Exercise Validates Capabilities to Move Infectious Patients\u00a0 RICHMOND, Va. \u2013 This week the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) joined with state, local and federal partners to take part in the four-day Tranquil Passport exercise. 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