The Harris County Commissioners Court created a 69-position COVID-19 division of Harris County Public Health in a unanimous vote Aug. 24 that will be funded by $17 million from the Public Improvement Contingency Fund and federal COVID-19 relief grants.
The new division will take on the services that HCPH has provided during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, such as COVID-19 testing, contact tracing and vaccination. The department will also respond to other emergencies such as hurricanes and chemical spills, according to HCPH Executive Director Barbie Robinson.
“The goal ... that we're trying to achieve is to make sure that we have an adequate sustainable, nimble response to COVID[-19],” Robinson said. “We're going to be responding to COVID[-19] for some time.”
The department will last at least three years, Robinson said, since it is tied to time-limited federal grants.
At the Aug. 24 Harris County Commissioners Court meeting, Precinct 4 Commissioner Jack Cagle and Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey voiced concerns about the division’s expense.
“This is a bad time to be dipping into [the Public Improvement Contingency] fund,” Cagle said. “As we're right here, celebrating in a day, the anniversary of [Hurricane] Harvey.”
However, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said the new division will use less of the Public Improvement Contingency Fund to operate than the current public health emergency team.
“We're [currently] doing about $10 million every two months for the response,” Hidalgo said. “This would put us at $17 million for six months.”
Additionally, little cost would be associated with recruiting staff for the division, Robinson said, as public health leaders plan on moving existing department contractors to the three-year department.
Creating this division allows HCPH to offer a steady emergency response to locals while also minimizing employee burnout and turnover, Robinson said.
“Across the country, public health departments are moving to ... a division model and other models, because incident command wasn't designed for long-term response,” she said.
