HOUSTON – As omicron cases continue surging, the city of Houston is reporting several departments and city offices facing staffing issues.
The Houston Emergency Center or HEC, which provides 24/7 emergency 911 services, said the variant had taken a toll on 911 operators.
“A lot of times it’s not necessarily that they’ve tested positive, but we’re waiting on test results,” said the Director of the Houston Emergency Center Robert Mock. “So, [at] any given time, we could have 10 to 15 people out on protocol waiting to see if they’re positive.”
Mock said because of the impact on his department specifically, healthy 911 operators would be working overtime on New Year’s Eve.
“We’ve called in more people,” Mock said. “Some folks had New Year’s Eve off, so we did cancel some days off to get more personal in, and again, we are triaging the calls so that we get the life-safety calls out of the way quickly and get those dispatched.”
Mock added that the HEC was already facing shortage problems because of hiring issues but felt his department was prepared to take on every call and had a plan if they did become overwhelmed.
“We do have rollover capability,” he said. “If we get backed up, the county takes over for us and vice versa.”
During a press conference on Wednesday Mayor Sylvester Turner said 311, a consolidated call center designed for residents to get information on city services and report non-emergencies, was also dealing with similar issues.
District A Councilwoman Amy Peck called the problem concerning but said there were other ways to report issues to the city.
“If people can’t get into 311 by calling, they can use the app. They can send an email, or they can contact 311 through the website, and of course, they can also reach out to their City Council members as well,” she said. “If any of my constituents can get through, they can definitely reach out to our office and we can input [the information] into 311 for them,” Peck said.
The city of Houston has asked residents to be patient and only call 911 for real emergencies.