Public health departments are seeing an influx of cash and attention due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but long term, those dollars may not stick around.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought increased awareness to public health departments â how they serve communities, what services they can offer and their role in emergency response. Health departments have been tasked with leading the charge in pandemic response. With that push came additional dollars in the form of COVID-19 relief grants.
In Catawba County, the increased funding paid for COVID-19 testing, tracing, vaccination and outreach efforts.
Though some local leaders say itâs too soon to tell if funding of county health departments will increase or change due to the pandemic, Lenoir-Rhyne University Associate Professor of Public Health Randall Bergman isnât confident.