Narrative:

I was working radar combined to the tower. We are on covid-19 schedules with reduced staffing. It was a VFR day and traffic was building. We had just made the decision to open radar off to the TRACON on the hour. Complexity was definitely increased due to working moderate to busy traffic in the tower. Aircraft Y was an IFR practice approach; climbing off ZZZ. Aircraft X was a ZZZ airport departure level flying eastbound. Aircraft Y wasn't able to be handed off to ZZZ approach due to his round robin flight plan. I was assisting the tower controller with 6-7-10 work and other tricks to get a handoff accomplished on aircraft Y. Aircraft X asked if he had traffic; when I noticed aircraft Y and aircraft X converging. I turned aircraft X to a 360 heading and descended aircraft Y; but I think I lost separation. I didn't notice the converging traffic on the aircraft I was actual busy with trying to accomplish a handoff with. Aircraft X coming faster from the west didn't stick out to me as traffic heading northeast bound. Honestly I also forgot that I had climbed aircraft Y to 7;000; I thought I had stopped him at 5;000. That doesn't make up for missing the traffic and altitude in my scan.traffic picked up faster than expected and we probably should have split radar earlier. I should not have let myself get distracted with automation issues and should have stayed focused on the traffic. Also due to covid-19 traffic has been much reduced; and honestly I got behind in ramping up with traffic that used to be normal but is now busy in the current situation.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: TRACON Controller reported a loss of separation event and made reference to COVID-19 staffing levels as a contributing factor.

Narrative: I was working Radar combined to the Tower. We are on COVID-19 schedules with reduced staffing. It was a VFR day and traffic was building. We had just made the decision to open radar off to the TRACON on the hour. Complexity was definitely increased due to working moderate to busy traffic in the Tower. Aircraft Y was an IFR practice approach; climbing off ZZZ. Aircraft X was a ZZZ airport departure level flying eastbound. Aircraft Y wasn't able to be handed off to ZZZ approach due to his round robin flight plan. I was assisting the Tower Controller with 6-7-10 work and other tricks to get a handoff accomplished on Aircraft Y. Aircraft X asked if he had traffic; when I noticed Aircraft Y and Aircraft X converging. I turned Aircraft X to a 360 heading and descended Aircraft Y; but I think I lost separation. I didn't notice the converging traffic on the aircraft I was actual busy with trying to accomplish a handoff with. Aircraft X coming faster from the west didn't stick out to me as traffic heading northeast bound. Honestly I also forgot that I had climbed Aircraft Y to 7;000; I thought I had stopped him at 5;000. That doesn't make up for missing the traffic and altitude in my scan.Traffic picked up faster than expected and we probably should have split radar earlier. I should not have let myself get distracted with automation issues and should have stayed focused on the traffic. Also due to COVID-19 traffic has been much reduced; and honestly I got behind in ramping up with traffic that used to be normal but is now busy in the current situation.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.