An epidemiological specialist who was suspended with pay in September after she revealed staffing shortages of COVID-19 contact tracers and their poor working conditions at the state Department of Health has returned to work.

Jennifer Smith, who has been with the Health Department since 2016, was suspended with pay Sept. 4 and returned to work Friday.

Smith said she is happy to return to work, according a statement issued Monday by her attorney, Carl Varady.

“The epidemiological team at the Department continues to do important work under extreme and demanding conditions. My co-workers have continued to make personal sacrifices to fulfill their professional duties, testing and tracking the spread of the COVID-19 virus and other infectious diseases. I am grateful to have been cleared of the unsubstantiated allegations. I look forward to continuing to assist in tracking, testing, and preventing the spread of infectious disease, and protecting the health of Hawaii’s people during this difficult time,” Smith said.

In a September letter issued by Varady at the time of Smith’s suspension, Smith alleged “a management culture of bullying, shame and blame” at the Health Department that “fosters a culture of fear, not the solid science that is essential to ensure Hawaii’s public health.”

It was not immediately clear why Smith was suspended.

In the September letter, Smith said she was forced to leave the department because of a “faction” protecting state Epidemiologist Dr. Sarah Park.

Park, who has been criticized for her failure to build a robust COVID-19 testing and contact tracing program, went on paid leave on or around the time of Smith’s suspension.

Varady said Tuesday that Smith returned to work after the Health Department concluded an investigation on allegations made against Smith by a co-worker.

He said the allegations were unclear and declined to divulge the nature of the allegations. “Whatever the allegations were, they were unsubstantiated,” he said.

When the Honolulu Star-Advertiser sought comment by the Health Department on the investigation and Smith’s return, spokeswoman Janice Okubo responded in a text, “State personnel actions are confidential and DOH does not provide comment or information on personnel actions.”

Hawaii health officials, meanwhile, reported 89 new coronavirus infections statewide as of Tuesday, bringing the total since the start of the pandemic to 15,318 cases.

The new infection cases in the state include 73 on Oahu, seven on the Big Island, five Hawaii residents diagnosed outside of the state, three on Lanai and one on Kauai, the Health Department said.

The state death toll as of Monday was 219, with 170 fatalities on Oahu, 31 on Hawaii island, 17 on Maui and one Kauai resident who died on the mainland. The Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency says the Big Island’s COVID-19 death toll remains at 40; however, state health officials have yet to verify the novel coronavirus as a factor in nine of those deaths.

The U.S. coronavirus death toll is over 232,000 thus far.

On Monday, Kauai County officials said the island’s new case is a male resident who recently returned home from the mainland and tested negative as part of the state’s pre-travel testing program. He took a voluntary post-travel test as part of the county’s testing program and tested positive. Of the seven active coronavirus cases on the island, two people are hospitalized.

Health officials said two coronavirus cases were removed from the statewide tally due to updated laboratory information.

According to the latest data from the Health Department’s Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard, 65 patients with COVID-19 are in Hawaii hospitals, with 11 in intensive care units and eight on ventilators.