BOONE COUNTY, Ind — Boone County’s Health Department, the agency responsible for leading the battle against COVID-19, has been hampered by the virus.
One worker is sick and recovering and about half of the department’s 15 employees have been quarantined at home since that worker was diagnosed with COVID-19 last week.
“I don’t think any of us at the health department thought, 'Oh no, it’s not going to happen to us,'" said spokesperson Clair Haughton.
Haughton is among those employees quarantined. She said the sickened worker had little or no contact with the public.
“The risk to you, the general public who might have been coming into the health department over the last week, the risk of coming in contact with that individual, is extremely low,” Houghton explained
The health department remains open, processing birth and death records, water tests, and other routine functions including a weekly vaccination clinic for school children.
How is the health department operating with close to half its employees sidelined?
“We are a tiny but mighty team,” Haughton said with a smile.
It is a team that Haughton said is working from home while co-workers at the office are taking on extra responsibilities.
In the public health war against COVID-19, Boone County has been ahead of many communities, declaring a public health emergency, providing screenings and testing, creating an emergency treatment facility, and using automatic laser technology to take the temperatures of courthouse visitors and workers along with handheld thermometers at other government buildings.
The sickening of a co-worker makes the battle against COVID-19 a little more personal.
“Even as a young person, I am not immune,” Houghton said. “I know it can happen to absolutely anybody, people can be as cautious as the possibly can. This is a highly infectious disease, even among highly cautious people."