Some Lehigh County Jail guards hospitalized with COVID complications, employee tells officials Updated Jan 14, 2021; The jail in Allentown was on Wednesday night’s agenda for the Lehigh County commissioners. The employee who spoke only identified himself as Chad, and pleaded for hazard pay for jail employees. “At this time we feel very let down, we feel run ragged, our morale is low,” he said. Chad said there was a staffing crisis last year before the pandemic, and now people are being forced to work 16-hour shifts a day, five days a week. “We can’t work from home,” he said.