Communication and Coordination:
Communication
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### Primary Point of Contact (POC)

Laboratories providing support for an incident should have a primary Point of Contact (POC) through which all communication for an incident should generally flow. If other laboratory staff is contacted about the incident, they should refer the caller to the POC. The POC is responsible for routing the calls from parties outside of the incident response to the appropriate person (e.g., IC or PIO).

If the primary POC is not available, there should be a process in place to designate a new POC and transfer authority. The laboratory should notify the ASR or PRL when the laboratory's POC has changed. Laboratories can keep all the participants in a response informed with a daily status report and/or daily briefing.

Laboratories participating in a response should establish procedures for incident-related calls, including:

- How calls will be handled
- How they will be forwarded
- How after-hours calls will be addressed

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