County Health Director Applauds College for Being Safe Environment

February 4, 2021 - Dr. Tommy Jarrell, Richmond County Health Director, gave a report Tuesday at Richmond Community College’s Board of Trustees meeting about the ongoing work between his staff and College leaders to keep the college open and safe for students and employees since the start of the pandemic.

“We’ve been working closely with the College since April 2020 when we had our first case of COVID in Richmond County, and almost immediately, conversations began with the College,” Jarrell said. “We’ve always had a great partnership with the College and public health in Richmond County, and we value that partnership and appreciate it.”

Jarrell said the first challenge last spring was helping the nursing students get their much needed clinical hours, especially those who were just weeks away from graduating.

“We were able to bring some of them to the Health Department, and they helped us as much as we helped them, getting patients taken care of during a critical time when we needed assistance,” Jarrell said.

More recently, nursing students and medical assisting students, as well as the nursing and Allied Health faculty, provided assistance once the vaccine arrived in Richmond County. They helped people who needed assistance getting into the hospital; they drew up vaccines; and they also administered the vaccine.

“We had six students to come every single day those first few weeks in January,” Jarrell said about the vaccine clinics held at FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital-Rockingham.

During the time when everything was shut down in the spring, Jarrell came to the College before it opened back up to offer some guidance about protective measures and proper spacing in classrooms and workspaces.

“I didn’t have to offer very much because the College had already done a great job with that,” he said.

Jarrell also thanked the College for allowing the use of the Cole Auditorium’s parking lot as a COVID testing site.

“That was a tremendous help because we wanted to get testing on this side of the county so everyone didn’t have to drive to the other side of Rockingham for testing,” Jarrell said.

Jarrell noted that every time he came to campus to offer input for additional protective measures, he felt the College was providing a safe environment for students and employees.

Dr. Dale McInnis, president of RichmondCC, asked Jarrell to confirm that the College had not had any COVID clusters or outbreaks since it opened back up in the summer.

“You didn’t have any outbreaks even in the spring,” Jarrell said. “There were some isolated cases, but all of them were tied back to something away from the College.”

McInnis thanked Jarrell for his report and for the continued partnership of the Health Department.

The Board of Trustees also received a report on student enrollment for RichmondCC. Enrollment was down 13 percent for the fall semester, but there was an increase of students in the Associate and Applied Science programs from 961 students in fall 2019 to 1,043 students in fall 2020. This increase was primarily in the business and pre-nursing programs.

The College was also able to report an increase of 41 traditional students in its curriculum programs and an increase in the number of overall applicants for the 2021 spring semester. The College expects these numbers to continue to increase for spring as more classes will be starting Feb. 11 and March 25.