Allegan County Health Department reducing COVID-19 services after board vote
ALLEGAN COUNTY — Allegan County will transition to only offering mandated services related to COVID-19, after the county's Board of Commissioners voted in January to not cover a funding gap asked for by the health department.
According to the Allegan County Health Department, as of mid-February the health department will no longer be offering COVID-19 testing clinics, COVID-19 vaccine clinics, assistance for businesses and other organizations related to COVID-19, reports on school outbreaks, updated local case data on its website and local community leader reports.
ACHD announced the transition in a newsletter sent to residents Friday, Feb. 11.
During a Jan. 13 Allegan County board of commissioners meeting, commissioners approved allocating around $644,000 to the health department to continue mandated services. An ACHD report from January estimated the total cost to continue the health department’s COVID-19 mitigation through the end of the year would be around $2.1 million.
Mandated services include communicable disease investigation, health education services and limited vaccine appointments for vulnerable community members or children qualifying for the Vaccine for Children program, per ACHD.
A health department spokesperson said ACHD will still provide case investigations and contact tracing for high-risk populations.
“Ultimately, our goal is to provide the best response we can to our community to minimize COVID-19 impact with the resources we have available,” the spokesperson said over email.
In a joint statement from the Board of Commissioners and ACHD, officials said COVID-19 services like testing and vaccinations are more widely available through other providers.
“The county will continue to meet our mandated requirements as COVID-19 evolves. Services are increasingly available through private providers; however, gaps still remain. Funding for public health to address those gaps remains limited. The county is researching the state’s recent COVID-19 appropriation.
“The county continues to advocate for more flexibility to transfer grant funds among different COVID-19 services, as we are restricted in our ability to do so. The county will continue to work with partners such as the CDC Foundation, MDHHS, HONU and local private providers to respond to the needs of residents.”
In the report, officials said the funding would be paramount to maintaining staffing levels at the health department to conduct COVID-19 services.
“In addition, it will prevent service interruption/delays for other public health services, as the loss of contract employees requires plugging the personnel holes with ACHD and may lead to losing in-house staff due to uncertainty and burnout,” the report states.
In a separate statement, Board Chairperson Jim Storey said the board ultimately chose to allocate federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act for other purposes, including broadband expansion and water infrastructure.
“The board gave significant consideration to the funding requests relating to ARPA funds from the health department and several other agencies and determined that the use of those funds for broadband and water infrastructure not only support a healthy Allegan County, especially during pandemics, they will create long-term economic and educational opportunities,” Storey said.
COVID-19 case trends in Allegan County have decreased in recent weeks. According to state health data, Allegan County had 421 new COVID-19 cases Feb. 4-10. That is down from 1,620 cases from Jan. 18 to Jan. 24, when the county saw a peak in cases driven by the omicron variant.
— Contact Arpan Lobo at alobo@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @arpanlobo.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Allegan County reducing scope of COVID-19 services
