Structuring Equity Into Minnesota's COVID-19 Response: Lessons Learned and Future Investments.

Background: The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) integrated 3 intentional teams into their novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) response to ensure equity was not lost in the speed of response.

Implementation: These teams-the Cultural, Faith, and Disability Communities Branch, Tribal COVID-19 Healthcare Team, and Vaccine Equity Branch were able to reach communities through trusted partners, elevate the voices of communities most impacted, respect tribal sovereignty, establish equity leadership, and set equity goals and metrics.

Lessons Learned: The top-down nature of incident command, combined with pre-COVID-19 systems and structures that impede equity, led to both barriers and opportunities for centering equity in response efforts.