First Due, known to Public Safety agencies across the US for developing next-generation pre-incident planning, mobile response, and community engagement solutions, announced today, in partnership & collaboration with the International Association of Fire Chiefs, a FREE version of their Community Connect platform, in order to help Fire-EMS, Police, Emergency Management, and Healthcare agencies better combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Community Connect is currently used nationwide, enabling citizens to share critical life safety details of their households and businesses with their respective Public Safety agencies. With the ensuing COVID-19 Health Crisis developing across the United States, First Due has released a COVID-19 focused version of Community Connect, designed to allow residents to self-report their status and take protective actions during the outbreak. Agencies can use this information at the time of response or analyze the data in GIS platforms such as Esri’s ArcGIS.

“This tool will allow fire and EMS agencies the ability to know better where citizens have self-isolated or self-quarantined themselves in their community. With this information at their fingertips, firefighters and EMS personnel will have a much clearer picture of who they are responding to and what their health situation is. The IAFC is pleased to partner with innovative companies and technologies that help provide better, faster, and more capable services for our communities. We are pleased to partner with First Due.” — Fire Chief Gary Ludwig, IAFC President and Chairman of the Board.

Community Connect for COVID-19 offers residents an easy-to-use web portal, available on any device, where they can self-report critical information in line with industry protocol. Within the web portal, residents will be able to share contact, symptom, test, and high-risk related information. Shared information will then be available to First Responders to better prioritize COVID-19 driven care or take proper precautions before entering. Additionally, data collected from residents will be made actionable across GIS applications, such as Esri’s ArcGIS to give Public Safety agencies insight into how the Coronavirus is affecting their community.

“We’ve heard from Public Safety Agencies nationwide how difficult it is to track, manage, and report on current COVID-19 cases in their communities, resulting in First Responder exposures and a lack of situational awareness. Now, more than ever, Emergency Services need this critical information for a more prepared response. For that reason, we ask everyone to take two minutes out of their day to sign up and self-report!” explains Andreas Huber, First Due’s Co-Founder & CEO.