ANNE ARUNDEL — Anne Arundel County announced a new plan to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in the county by sharing the increasing workload of the health department with every county agency.
The county’s workforce development corporation will be hiring unemployed workers in the county to fill a variety of critically needed positions.
Operation COVID Health Corps (OCHC) is a multi-pronged approach to address the heavy lift that will be required to increase contact tracing, conduct more testing, report results sooner, handle high call demand, solve interagency issues related to covid cases, and most importantly, keep Anne Arundel open.
County Executive Steuart Pittman said the significant increase in COVID-19 cases among those under 35 years of age is stretching county health resources, along with complaint-driven compliance checks to reduce the spread in bars, restaurants, businesses, and other sites where health officers are expected to coordinate with law enforcement on investigations, violations and criminal enforcement actions.
The first leg of OCHC is occurring through the Office of Personnel, where staff is recruiting for vacancies and grant funded positions in the Department of Health.
Second, the county Purchasing Office is developing a contract with an emergency medical staffing company.
Finally, under the county’s ongoing state of emergency declared in March, Pittman has asked each agency head to designate three staff members to support the health department for at least 16 hours a week into the foreseeable future.
