Imagine shooting a moving target. With your eyes closed. And limited ammunition. And getting a bull’s eye. That might be how the New Hanover County Health Department’s response to COVID could be described.
 
Or, as New Hanover County Assistant Health Director Carla Turner said, the health department’s response was “phenomenal.”
 
Turner took the position after changes in the department resulted in a newly appointed health director, David Howard, and the reduction from two to one assistant health director positions.
 
Turner, who formerly served as the department’s personal health services manager, has learned to pivot to meet the demands of a new job amidst a global pandemic. In her new role, she will step in when required.
 
This will mean Turner will be differently connected to the nursing side of the department’s work. Turner, a registered nurse, will still supervise the department’s nurses, but her role will involve more leadership functions than on-the-ground supervising.
 
“My passion hasn’t changed,” Turner said of her new role. “I still have a passion for public health. I believe in what we do here at New Hanover County Health and Human Services. I believe in the services we provide and the initiatives that we push forward that take care of this community. Because that is at the heart of what we do, is this community.”
 
“We in health and human services are quite honestly silent protectors for this community,” is something Turner says she repeats to anyone who will listen.
 
“You may not know what we do, but the things that we do make a really big difference to the things you get to do,” she said, citing examples such as ensuring the restaurants are safe to eat in, keeping a handle on the types of mosquitos seen in the area and providing a multitude of other services.
 
Fueled by her passion for and experience in public health, Turner is eager to oversee the department’s continued efforts to battle COVID.
 
“In the beginning, it felt like every day or two we were getting new guidance from the state, which is understandable because it was a novel virus,” she said. “It still is a novel virus.”
 
The state came up with decisions on battling COVID based on the information they were receiving. Then the health department had to implement those decisions.
 
“To say that we had to pivot at a moment’s notice is an understatement,” Turner said.
 
The department’s work has evolved from contact tracing and case investigations to vaccination and education.
 
She recalls the vaccine rollout was initially phased to allow five different levels of groups of people to get the vaccine, beginning with frontline health care personnel taking care of people with COVID.
 
With new information from the state and vaccination availability changing regularly, however, Turner was in constant contact with health partners such as Novant, NHRMC, MedNorth, Wilmington Health and Cape Fear Clinic to revise and update rollout plans.
 
At the same time, the department strived to educate the community about the vaccines. Turner said she can’t make people do anything, but she can provide them with scientific, trusted information that people can use to weigh their decision.
 
She commends the department’s work.
 
“I cannot say enough about our staff here, countywide, but especially our public health staff,” Turner said. “We pulled our nurses from everywhere,” including from the school system, which was supportive, realizing that the quicker they got a handle on COVID, the quicker school could resume.
 
The peaks and valleys of the vaccination rollout can be seen on the county’s dashboard. Turner recalls that last summer there was a bit of a lull in COVID cases. Health officials were hopeful. But then cases among the younger adult population rose again. Some of the department’s highest numbers were after the holidays.
 
“That’s what was understandable, not OK, and frustrating at the same time,” she says. “It was the holidays, and people were tired of being home. I get that. But it was very important that we hold on just a little longer so we don’t have the surge like we had.”
 
By May the numbers were decreasing, which Turner attributes primarily to vaccination efforts.
 
Looking back, Turner said the biggest challenges to battling COVID were the disappointingly high number of 25- to 49-year-old positive COVID tests, the surge in numbers around the holidays and the reluctance of so many people to get the vaccine.
 
One of the greatest accomplishments was the ease with which the older residents pushed up their sleeves.
 
The health department worked hard to get the county’s over-65 population vaccinated, she said.
 
Turner said the health department would work with pediatricians and family care practitioners so they could vaccinate children in their offices once the vaccines are approved for them. The health department will continue to offer the vaccines too.
 
“I’ve learned about the resilience of our county employees, especially our folks who have participated in our vaccination clinics,” Turner said. “We were so excited with the governor’s new executive order. I have not had a mask the entire time I have been in the office today. I go to the copier without having my mask on, and it’s fabulous.”