Every five years, the Department of Health assesses and classifies public health risks according to their probability, their potential severity and their desire to react from the city.
June 3, 2025 – Today, the New York Department of Health (New York Health Department) has published a report On the main public health risks that may have an impact on New Yorkers in order to inform and improve the way the city is preparing for future public health emergencies. Directed every five years, jurisdictional risk assessment (JRA) collects information on public health risks, analyzes them and identifies the most serious threats according to their probability of creating a public health disaster. The main dangers include floods, the epidemic of infectious diseases, cyber attacks, the coastal storm and a pandemic.
“Public health is preventive health – and this includes emergency identification and prevention before having an impact on New Yorkers,” said Acting health commissioner, Dr. Michelle Morse. “The evaluation of the jurisdictional risks of public health is a vital initiative which allows us to identify, assess and treat potential health threats.
“We appreciated the collaboration with Dohmh on this report, because it aligns our mission to prepare before, during and after the emergencies for all types of danger,” said New York Iscol’s emergency management commissioner. As a coordination agency for all events, we are always looking for resources to create a risk -focused response to make sure we help the most vulnerable communities. The JRA helps us to better understand the impacts and strategies for public health to reduce pressure on public health services. »»
Public health risks are defined as events that can cause generalized diseases or harmful health effects, whether natural – such as coastal storms or extreme heat – or human manufacturing – such as discharges of dangerous materials or cyber attacks. These dangers question the routine functions and the emergency capacity of the city and have an impact on the health of New Yorkers.
For the JRA 2024, ten key risks have been identified and evaluated using a public health risk assessment tool based on evidence. This tool allowed hundreds of emergency intervention teams from New York, health care systems and community professionals and providing comments on the importance of the city on these dangers. This information allows the health service to prepare for emergencies which are informed by people with first -hand experience protecting public health.
The floods have been identified as the most urgent public health risk for New York. The increase in sea level and the intensification of storms due to climate change should make floods more frequent and significant risks for New Yorkers. The overall classification of public health risks of the JRA 2024 is included in the graph below.
The assessment has defined the risk frequency as follows:
- Casual: The danger should occur at least once within 100 years
- Likely: The danger is likely to occur several times within 100 years
- Frequent: This danger is likely to occur several times, even annually, within 100 years
The report also provides an in -depth overview of each danger, as well as mitigation strategies to help minimize risks and protect public health. The recommendations include:
- Flood
- Use emergency valves to prevent sewer backups.
- Build rainfall gardens to absorb rainwater and reduce runoff.
- Promotional steward of green space for rainwater management
- Infectious disease epidemic
- Strengthen disease monitoring to take epidemics early.
- Improve public health communication for prevention and treatment.
- Ensure that hospitals can change care during epidemics
- Cyber attacks
- Improve cybersecurity through city agencies with regular updates
- Train employees to detect and respond to threats
- Develop backup systems for critical infrastructure
At a time when emergency funding for public health is in danger, the JRA report gives an overview of future requests and what is necessary to respond. Using her Interactive mapping toolNew Yorkers can learn more about public health risks that represent the greatest threat to their neighborhoods.
Using a multi-aging approach, the health service is preparing for all the dangers that can have an impact on New Yorkers by planning emergency scenarios, training and exercising staff, evaluating progress and repeating the process to ensure the safety and health of New York. In order to quickly respond to public health threats and protect the health of New Yorkers, the capacities of the New York Department of Health include:
- Electronic surveillance and detective systems of trained diseases Who quickly detect epidemics of the disease, identify individuals infected with treatment and help prevent the spread of the disease.
- Public health laboratory supplies, experienced equipment and laboratories Who use diagnostic tools to quickly identify diseases, flu and COVIR-9, with emerging infectious diseases such as avian flu (H5N1) and EBOLA
- Medical storage and distribution and expertise storage This quickly vaccinated more than 100,000 New Yorkers during the 2023 MPOX epidemic and more than 5.2 million New Yorkers during the Pandemic Covid-19
- Risk communication equipment and expert communicators which provide information and advice to the public to protect themselves from health threats
- Solid relations with members and organizations of the local community To improve the ability of communities to make emergency plans and share resources so that they recover faster and more
- Emergency managers which make emergency plans, form the market
The JRA is funded by American centers for disease control and prevention Emergency preparation in public health Cooperative contract, which has been an essential source of financing for state, premises and territorial public health services since 2002.
###
021-25
Media contact: PressOffice@health.nyc.gov