KC Health Department’s services reduced after two staff test positive for COVID-19
Services provided by the Kansas City Health Department have been reduced after two staff contracted COVID-19 and nine others were quarantined.
The health department said Monday that the two positive employees were exposed outside the health department.
They did not have symptoms and passed screenings when they entered the department’s building.
After the employees learned of their exposure, they began quarantining and tested positive.
Close contacts, including nine health department staff, began quarantining Monday.
The department’s birth and death records and medical records office are closed until Oct. 19. The immunization and sexual health clinics will take fewer appointments, said Tiffany Wilkinson, division manager for communicable disease prevention and public health preparedness.
“As other businesses and organizations have discovered, when employees go into quarantine, it restricts what services they can provide their customers,” Wilkinson said. “We are facing that now.”
Services will be redirected to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services or area county health departments.
Across the Kansas City metropolitan area, 41,570 people have tested positive and 587 have died to date, according to data maintained by The Star.
