Claiborne County extends COVID-19 administrative and sick-leave policies through June 30, 2021
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Summary
The commission unanimously extended COVID-19 administrative leave and 14-day COVID sick-time provisions retroactive to Jan. 1 through June 30, 2021, and restricted eligibility to employees who had not previously used the COVID sick time; employees who refuse vaccination when eligible are ineligible for the COVID sick time going forward.
The Claiborne County Commission on Jan. 25 voted 20-0 to extend earlier COVID-19 personnel policies through June 30, 2021. The resolution (Res. 2021-004) extends policies adopted in 2020 that provided additional administrative and COVID-specific sick leave and makes several conditions explicit.
The resolution extends the administrative leave policy and the 14-day COVID sick-time benefit retroactively to Jan. 1, 2021. It limits the COVID sick time during the extension to employees who had not already used those days under the original 2020 period. The resolution also states that any employee who refuses to accept the COVID-19 vaccine when it is offered to them when they are eligible under the county's phase schedule is not eligible to receive COVID-19 sick time thereafter.
County Mayor Joe Brooks (name as corrected from meeting record) provided a county COVID update during discussion: the commission was told there were 321 active cases and 33 COVID-19 deaths in the county as of that meeting date; hospital capacity in the prior 30 days had reached approximately 85–90%, with roughly half of hospital patients being COVID-19 cases.
Commissioner Charlton Vass moved to approve the extension; Commissioner Nathan Epperson seconded. The roll call vote was 20 for, 0 against. The resolution takes effect upon passage and does not change underlying county vaccination priority phases, which the mayor said remained constrained by limited vaccine availability.