Houston Health Department works to fill 300 jobs meant to help end COVID-19 crisis

HOUSTON - If you are looking for a job, you could help out with the COVID-19 response and get paid pretty well to do it.

The Houston Health Department has opened up 300 job openings all related to tracking and stopping the spread of COVID-19.

A total of 2,683 people tuned in to the City of Houston’s virtual job fair Thursday as the Houston Health Department looks to more adequately staff its COVID-19 response.

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"Frankly we’ve been at this several months and very long days—12-14 hour days—so we need help," said Porfirio Villarreal, a spokesman for Houston Health Dept.

Villarreal says much of what they need is more staff on the phones tracing the contacts that COVID-19 patients have made.

"We’ve not only got that one person that we need to contact but also the other people that were around them that they spent time with or prolonged time with—and so you can see how that can cascade into many calls," said Villarreal. "Where you’ve been, what was your activities these days?"

The city hopes to start adding new staff by as early as next week. The funding for the new hires came from the federal government thanks to the CARES Act.

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"It has to be spent on the response," said Villarreal. "The city’s budget is separate."

The job openings are temporary and specific to the COVID-19 response. The health department tentatively plans to staff these positions through December.

These 300 new job openings have pay that ranges from $15/hour to a six-figure salary. If you missed the job fair, no worries. You can still apply online at this link: https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/houston?page=2Houston