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Halifax County commissioners decided today to return to Zoom meetings as the number of new positive COVID-19 cases sees an increase.

The Zoom meetings will begin with the board’s September 7 meeting scheduled for 9:30 a.m.

The decision came on the heels of an update by Health Director Bruce Robistow who told the board during a public comment section that the county has been seeing the Delta variant of the virus which he said is more than twice as contagious as the previous variant. “The virus is able to mutate because we haven’t reached a goal of herd immunity with vaccinations. It’s important that everyone consider getting vaccinated so that we can finally slow COVID-19 appropriately.”

Robistow said the county’s most recent published report shows 105 new cases in one week which he said is almost double the previous week.

He said 140 cases remain active. “We remain at 116 deaths due to COVID. We’re at 8.3 percent positivity.”

Forty-four percent of the Halifax County population is partially vaccinated while 40 percent are fully vaccinated. “That’s an increase of 1 percent over the last couple of months,” he said. “Obviously the demand for the vaccine has dramatically slowed and we’re hopeful that comes back on the increase.”

Robistow said Vidant North has 12 inpatients currently being treated for COVID-19, which is double the amount last week. “The entire Vidant chain is gearing up for a critical shortage of ICU beds due to this. We anticipate this continuing to climb in the near future and we are hopeful that we can reimplement many of the different mitigating policies to try to reduce this, encourage vaccines and take care of COVID once and for all.”

Board Chair Vernon Bryant said after the health director’s comments, “This stuff is no joke, I had it. I was very sick for a long time so get your shots and do what you need to do.”

Commissioner Carolyn Johnson said, “Based on what Bruce said the numbers are increasing. My opinion would be to return (to virtual meetings) until we get a handle on this.”

While commissioners were unanimous on the return to virtual meetings they didn’t reach a consensus on a suggestion by County Manager Tony Brown on looking at incentives to get employees vaccinated.

One suggestion was giving employees a monetary bonus while the other was giving them extra paid leave.

While American Rescue Plan money can be used to provide an incentive to get employees vaccinated, County Attorney Glynn Rollins said there remains a question on whether payments could be made retroactive for employees who have already been vaccinated.

Commissioner Rives Manning said he was not in favor of giving bonuses to employees who get the vaccine. “I would be opposed to paying anybody.”

Brown said if an incentive plan is chosen and an employee decided not to get vaccinated that decision would not affect their employment.