Marcy, NY (WIBX) - SUNYIT hosted the Oneida County Health Department's most recent Point of Distribution exercise, simulating the aftermath of a potentially pandemic incident.

The agency was joined by the Mobile Crisis Assessment Team, the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees and others, to test their response capabilities following a fictional anthrax attack.

Public Health Preparedness Coordinator, Lisa Worden, says the exercises help expose possible issues while training staff.

"The goal is to think about how, if this were an incident that impacted the entire population, you would want to get people in effectively and quickly," Worden said. "The best way possible is to set up this technique and operation."

Using 50 Oneida-Herkimer BOCES students as victims, the group was able to process them in less than 15 minutes.

The goal was to process and distribute medication to at least 200 people per hour.

More From WIBX 950