CSHD ending COVID-19 hotline – WHSV

HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) – The Central Shenandoah Health District (CSHD) announced Monday they will be discontinuing the use of its COVID-19 hotline at the end of the month.

The COVID-19 hotline is a one-stop shop for all resources and information regarding the pandemic.

“People make appointments at our health department clinics, we also helped folks access vaccines elsewhere throughout the area, we answered a lot of questions about COVID-19 transmission you know what that looks like in our area and how to best stay safe,” Jordi Shelton, communications specialist for the Central Shenandoah Health District said.

The COVID hotline was started in March of 2022.

Over the last year, CSHD said nearly 3,000 people have called the number for assistance.

“It was definitely really well utilized by folks in our area and you know we’re grateful that we were able to provide this resource,” Shelton said.

At its start, the COVID hotline was used by thousands but in recent weeks it had not been seeing as many calls.

“Consistently it started to dwindle in the last few weeks we have not been getting nearly as many calls to the hotline and figured that it was time to sunset this process and focus into some more preventative measures for our community,” Shelton said.

In Jan, the Biden administration declared the COVID-19 emergency would come to an end on May 11.

However, there are still resources available to those who need to find testing or vaccination sites as they may lessen in the coming months.

“The VDH COVID-19 dashboard, the CDC dashboard those are great resources that will provide you with the most up-to-date information regarding COVID-19 prevention, mitigation, answer any questions about vaccination and testing and all that good stuff,” Shelton said.

CSHD also offers updates on its Facebook and a weekly newsletter that gives insight into where the Valley stands health-wise.

Shelton said discontinuing the COVID hotline allows them to transition to utilizing other resources.

The CSHD COVID hotline will end of March 30.

The Virginia Department of Health still offers a state-wide call center.

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