UPDATE: The Callaway County Health Department likely won't be reopening Monday.
On Saturday following publication of the original version of this article, Presiding Commissioner Gary Jungermann told the Fulton Sun: "The Health Department will most likely be closed to the public one more week due to staff shortage."
EARLIER COVERAGE
The Callaway County Health Department will reopen to the public Monday after being closed for a week while contact tracers caught up on COVID-19 cases.
"We are holding our own, though I'm going to guess we're still behind a little," Presiding Commissioner Gary Jungermann said Friday.
County officials announced the closure Nov. 9 amid spiking cases in Callaway County. As of Thursday - when data aggregated by the county and state were last updated - the county had 583 active cases of COVID-19. Between 1,744 (the county's number) and 2,119 (the state's number) had tested positive since the pandemic reached Callaway County. The county's seven-day positivity rate, which is the percentage of tests administered that come back positive, stood at 49.7 percent.
"Due to the increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases in Callaway County and a shortage of available personnel, the Callaway County Health Department will be closing to the public Monday through Friday," the Callaway County Commission stated in a news release Nov. 9. "This will allow the health department staff to focus on COVID-19 case investigations and contact tracing."
Jungermann later confirmed via email a health department staffer had tested positive for COVID-19 during the prior weekend.
"We have fogged the building two times (since) to make sure not to have a spread within," he said.
That staff member is still out of the office, he added Friday.
The county is working to hire and train additional part-time contact tracers, and has purchased cell phones to be used for contact tracing. Jungermann said the contact tracers are running into difficulties with people who test positive but refuse to give the contact tracer information about their close contacts.
"And every day, there's a pile of paper when they come in, and they have to eliminate the ones that have been counted already," Jungermann said. "They're finding three or four every day who are duplicates. Some days we get somebody that ain't in Callaway County."
He encouraged people who test positive to wait patiently for a call from the health department, rather than calling in themselves, which can disrupt contact tracing efforts. However, those with COVID-19 are encouraged to call their own recent close contacts. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines a "close contact" as anyone who was within 6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes. An infected person can spread COVID-19 starting 48 hours before the person had any symptoms or tested positive for COVID-19.
During the closure, participants in the Women, Infants and Children program were notified and steps were taken to ensure they could access their WIC benefits, said Leah Laramore, the county's human resources director.
The health department's current hours are 8 a.m.-noon Monday and 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday.