Right as the COVID-19 pandemic set in — shuttering businesses, closing public gathering spots and driving people into their homes with little clarity about when normal life might resume — it was clear one of state and local governments’ first tasks would be to figure out how to keep their constituents connected to the public services that were as vital as ever.
The challenges that followed are now familiar in the IT community: unemployment insurance systems that had to be saved from collapsing under record-breaking strain; converting classrooms for students as young as four into virtual environments; delivering loans and lifeline payments to restaurants and other small businesses shut down by health restrictions; creating websites and apps for coronavirus testing, tracing and, eventually, vaccinations.
