Health Department to expand building

WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — The Houston County Health Department held their monthly meeting on March 5, approving a half-million dollar step in their plans to expand the Health Department building on Cohen Walker Drive.

Construction figures are still up in the air, but on furniture and equipment alone, the estimated cost was over $450,000. Director of Project Development Morris Hutcheson laid out every cost by item and by category at the meeting Thursday morning.

He believes this expansion is crucial: “This health department has grown so rapidly,” Hucheson said. “The growth has been phenomenal.”

According to Hucheson, future plans for the space on the west side of the building include, but are not limited to, a larger waiting room and an infectious disease room. The infectious disease room will allow the health department to accommodate for a high volume of testing and vaccination. Hucheson’s estimate on the complete building expansion is February 2023.

Over teleconference, Amber Erickson, the Director of Epidemiology, Community Assessment and Research Initiatives, gave COVID-19 updates and statistics. All stats were at time of the meeting. According to Erickson, since March 2020, there were 2.4 million confirmed cases in the state of Georgia. About 108,000 cases were hospitalized and around 15,000 were admitted into intensive care.

“Luckily, throughout this last surge, the ICU admissions have not drastically increased,” Erickson said.

Also, 46% of Houston County residents were fully vaccinated, and 43% of those fully vaccinated received a booster, he added.

Erickson also outlined new community prevention guidelines. Risk category is determined by community transmission and hospitalizations.

A county can be low, medium or high-risk. Low-risk has no prevention measures except for vaccination and staying home when sick. A medium-risk encourages individuals to wear a mask in public if they are at a higher risk of becoming sick, or if they have underlying health conditions. High-risk areas urge everyone to wear their mask in public.

At time of meeting, Houston County was considered low-risk. The only medium-risk county in Georgia was Jasper County.

HHJ News