Individuals, businesses, schools and government offices have all been impacted by the pandemic, but the Jefferson County Public Health Department saw its workload steadily increase along with new cases of the virus.
The department has also received $157,463 in COVID relief funding, with the bulk of that, 86%, going to wages.
For the Public Health Department, the case surges began last July and that’s when the department started hiring temporary nurses to help with the increasing amount of contact tracing and case investigation, according to Public Health Supervisor Pam Hanna.
By September, the department had hired five temporary nurses to assist with the COVID response as well as help with flu vaccinations, said Hanna.
With fresh case surges in October and November, the department hired two more contact tracers, as well as a part-time nurse, said Hanna.
In November alone, the county recorded more than 300 new cases of COVID -19.
On top of those additional workers, the department’s regular staff was working overtime to manage the case load, said Hanna.
Some of that time was recorded as compensation time, or comp time, and Jefferson County allowed workers to double the amount of comp time they could accrue, from 120 to 240 hours, due to the pandemic, according to Kellie Doherty, Jefferson County Human Resources administrator.
Comp time is time off provided to employees in lieu of paid overtime, according to Doherty.
“In the end, comp time saves us,” said Doherty of the actual dollar cost of the additional working hours.
And it was mostly the health department, of all county departments, that added those hours during this time, said Doherty.
Other expenses included supplies such as personal protective equipment, disinfectants and office equipment needed to work remotely or conduct vaccination clinics. Cell phones for contact tracing were also an added expense, according to Hanna.
But despite the extra hired help, as well as the overtime and comp time, Hanna is unsure how the department would have fulfilled its mission this year without the help of volunteers.
Volunteers helped with making masks, contact tracing, answering telephones, filing paperwork, directing office traffic and administering vaccines, she said.
“Their service to us and our residents has made a positive impact on our community,” said Hanna.
