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Bexar County Public Health Director Andrea Guerrero-Guajardo said this week that her agency will continue its work after federal COVID relief funds under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) run out Jan. 1. County commissioners have agreed to continue funding some of the positions that otherwise would have been eliminated.
Commissioners budgeted five post-ARPA positions for the Preventative Health Division, effective Jan. 1 plus 10 post-ARPA positions for the Safety Team Action Response Program (STAR) through September 2027. The team provides case management for domestic violence intervention, handling an average of more than 3,100 cases a year.
The county public health department saw six positions cut from a staff of 28 during the tight county budget process this year. But Guerrero-Guajardo said a strong team is left to carry on their work.
"All of our public health priorities remain the same — behavioral health, chronic disease prevention, obviously animal care, and our AgriLife division is also there, and they do quite a bit in chronic disease-nutrition education."
Jennifer Luna, a spokeswoman for the county public health department, said future plans include more jail diversion efforts to get inmates the treatment they need and more direct outreach to residents in unincorporated areas, most especially with diabetes awareness and prevention programs. University Health has found that up to 72% of Bexar residents are overweight or obese.
During this week's groundbreaking of a new county animal shelter, Guerrero-Guajardo mentioned a new emerging local health challenge. She said Bexar County currently has the highest number of reported rabies cases in animals in Texas and urged residents to keep their distance from stray animals and wildlife to avoid being bitten.
County public health will move into renovated office space which will serve as its new headquarters on Nogalitos Street in October.
The county public health department grew out of necessity during the outbreak of COVID-19. The county did not have its own health authority to turn to at the start of the pandemic, so county commissioners voted in 2022 to use $60 million in federal COVID relief under ARPA to create its own to serve the more than half-a-million residents in unincorporated areas of the county. The department was created to meet the challenge of future pandemics too.
The City of San Antonio was served during the pandemic by the San Antonio Metropolitan Health Department, most often referred to simply as Metro Health. While it had Metro in its title, its outreach primarily focuses on residents of the city and not the county. It did its best to serve all area residents during the early part of the pandemic with mass COVID vaccination events at the Alamodome.
The $60 million spent on the creation of the county public health department was a big chunk of the county's $389 million in total federal COVID relief. The money was used to help residents get back on their feet during and after the pandemic. Most of the funding was spent on public health, mental health, affordable housing, small businesses and non-profits.
