Small Aircraft
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (mon) 3; Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 9
Workload; Time Pressure
ATC Issue All Types; Conflict Airborne Conflict; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance
Environment - Non Weather Related; Human Factors; Staffing
Aircraft X was climbing out of 5;000 feet for 10;000 feet. Aircraft Y was 25 NM NW and level at 9;000 feet SE bound. The sectors were combined and busy with a full workload including practice approaches on the north side of the sector configuration; with multiple in-bounds as well as terminal arrival and departure traffic. Aircraft X initially had a good climb rate which declined with altitude; and became traffic for Aircraft Y. The two aircraft were opposite directions and at around 7 miles apart Aircraft X was only at 8;300 feet and climbing and would not top Aircraft Y at 9;000 feet. Traffic alert was issued to Aircraft X and given a 30 degree turn to the right and a descent to 8;000 feet. Traffic was issued to Aircraft Y and a climb to 10;000 feet. Aircraft Y reported Aircraft X in sight and was instructed to maintain visual separation and to climb and maintain 10;000 feet. To my knowledge separation was never lost but was close.Due to very short staffing; along with COVID-19 scheduling this makes it hard to mitigate busy traffic by splitting sectors in the optimal efficiency of running the NAS. Other issues that could have been preventive; would be the presence of a Supervisor to staff the area when a Supervisor was scheduled for work; however; the Supervisor was on break and a Controller in Charge took the position which greatly hurts the staffing of able bodies to the operation.
Center Controller reported a possible loss of separation and cited COVID-19 related staffing issues as a contributing factor.