Local county managers respond to surrounding counties COVID mandates
Pitt County commissioners voted to require employees to get the vaccine or consent to weekly testing for COVID-19. Wake County is offering incentives to their vaccinated employees and unvaccinated employees will be tested weekly. We reached out to the county managers of Greene, Jones, and Lenoir Counties to ascertain whether they will require employee vaccininations or not.
“These measures have not been discussed at the Board level in Greene County,” said Kyle DeHaven, Greene County Manager. “In the most recent Department Head meeting, August 3rd, caution was raised of the resurgence of the COVID-19 virus.”
Greene County has a high community transmission rate according to the CDC with 112 active cases and 36.7% of the population fully vaccinated.
“I do not see us ever making it mandatory to get the vaccine,” said Jones County Manager Franky Howard. “We have worked with Department Heads to make it as convenient as possible for employees to seek and receive the vaccine even if they need to take time off from work to do so.”
Jones County has a high community transmission rate according to the CDC with 43 active cases and 44.8% of the population fully vaccinated.
“At this time, we are strongly encouraging our staff members to consider the vaccine and will work with our health department to ensure availability to all employees,” said Lenoir County Manager Michael James.
Lenoir County has a high community transmission rate according to the CDC with 298 active cases and 46.7% of the population fully vaccinated.
“Department heads were not mandated to do anything, but were given the authority to increase protocols as necessary in their departments,” said DeHaven. “I have shared one department’s protocols with all department heads recently in an attempt to keep safety on everyone’s minds.”
On August 29 North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services reported a 7 day rolling average of 6,844 COVID-19 cases with 50% of the total NC population fully vaccinated.
“We are staggering employee shifts with certain departments to ensure if we have an exposure incident we lower the chances of having to temporarily close a department,” said Howard. “Our goal is to keep our employees safe as well as those citizens or clients that we serve. If an employee is working directly with another employee or client they are encouraged to wear a mask.”
At the state level, Governor Roy Cooper is requiring state employees in Cabinet Agencies to show proof of vaccination or get weekly COVID testing and wear masks.
“Employees are actively wearing face coverings and limiting in-person staff meetings to keep each other safe,” said James. “The way we do business has changed since the start of the pandemic and many of our residents and customers are opting for remote service delivery via email and through our website to conduct business with the County. We expect that will continue.”
