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Public Service Personified

Posted

CARROLL COUNTY — Carroll County Health Department is serving the public, regardless of the working conditions. During the winter weather, associates were administering vaccines and COVID tests at a drive-through station outside the Health Department. Last week, the outdoor temperatures were in the 20s and the associates continued to work in their insulated clothing.

Pictured is Jeannie Walker, one of several Health Department workers, who registered patients as they sit in their warm vehicles. Workers had warming periods as they rotated in and out of the building.

Health Department workers have provided vaccines and COVID testing for more than a year, most of which were outside, regardless of the weather.

In Carroll County, with the Health Department and other sites providing testing data, there were 577 cases between January 9 to January 15.

The year 2021 COVID statistics are restated.

2021 Key COVID-19 Data Points: Total tests processed this year: 5,394,058 • Total cases reported this year: 762,964 • Total vaccines administered in the year: 8,280,246.

The TDH Office of State Chief Medical Examiner reconciled outstanding death certificates with COVID-19 as an underlying cause of death, bringing COVID-19 fatalities spanning spring 2020-December 2021 to 20,644.

The lag in death reporting data can be contributed to many factors including the manual process most providers and facilities undertake, the increase in at-home deaths, and the strain on the public health infrastructure during case surges. On average, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes that approximately 75 percent of mortality data is complete by eight weeks, given the time it takes to determine the cause of death in some cases.