AUSTIN (KXAN) — The City of Austin joined regional leaders, public health officials and hospital professionals to host a disaster simulation Monday, in an effort to build up emergency responses to pandemics and natural disasters.

The simulation follows the COVID-19 pandemic and takeaways government officials and health organizations made regarding emergency responses, according to a release.

Participants trained on a simulation game that offered them the opportunity “to explore different aspects that lead to the selection of a given disaster, their relevant importance and which are the indicators for the need of a change in such structure,” per the release.

The simulation tested emergency responses across a host of threats, hazard emergencies, pandemics and disasters. Monday’s threat scenario was “tailored around a potential pandemic threat and [focused] on emergency response in the wider area of the City of Austin and the Capital Area Trauma Regional Advisory Council (CATRAC) region,” the release added.

The Center for Advanced Preparedness and Threat Response Simulation put on Monday’s event.