‘Grim milestone’: State’s confirmed pandemic deaths reach 20,000

The number of confirmed Covid deaths in Georgia has now surpassed 20,000, state officials said Friday. In addition, there are more than 3,000 “probable’’ deaths from Covid, according to the state Public Health website. Georgia’s first confirmed Covid death was in March 2020. “It is tragic but not surprising that we have surpassed this grim…

Your Covid game plan: Are stadiums safe?

By Phil Galewitz and Andy Miller The college football season is kicking into high gear, the NFL season starts Sept. 9, and the baseball pennant races are heating up. For the first time since 2019, nearly all stadiums will be fully open to fans. In the so-called Before Times, sitting shoulder to shoulder inside a…

Commentary: Require masks, promote vaccination

More than half of all Georgia public school students are now required to wear masks in class, the Associated Press reported recently. One physician organization would like to see mask requirements extended to more schools – and to other settings. In a new GHN Commentary, the president of the Georgia State Medical Association points out…

As physicians, we stand firm in favor of mask mandates

By Dr. Ericka Russell-Petty We, the doctors of the Georgia State Medical Association, want to express our alarm and concern over the current surge of the Covid-19 pandemic. The data over the course of the pandemic have documented that African Americans are disproportionately impacted by Covid-19, have excess negative health consequences, more hospitalizations, and are more likely to…

State shatters record for Covid-19 hospitalizations

The state has broken its record for Covid patient hospitalizations, and has reached 5,880, a Public Health spokeswoman said Tuesday. The previous mark was set Jan. 12 at 5,814 hospitalized virus patients during the third Covid surge, according to Nancy Nydam, the spokeswoman. (The agency’s website Tuesday shows a lower hospitalization figure.) Meanwhile, several other…

Kemp announces incentive for Covid shots, aid for oxygen supplies

Adding a new incentive for Georgia teachers and state employees to get vaccinated is among several moves Gov. Brian Kemp announced Monday to combat the recent relentless wave of Covid. About 325,000 State Health Benefit Plan (SHBP) members are eligible for the incentive, Kemp said at a press conference. It would equate to a $150…

State Poison Center gets reports of misuse of drug in Covid surge

The misuse of an anti-parasite drug to treat or prevent Covid has spiked in recent weeks, leading to increased calls to poison centers. The CDC issued a health advisory Thursday warning doctors and the public about the use of ivermectin to treat the virus. The drug, used for roundworm infections and the mostly tropical disease known as river blindness, is not approved for Covid. The Georgia Poison…

Covid data disappearing in Georgia, other states despite latest surge

Two state government websites in Georgia recently stopped posting updates on Covid-19 cases in prisons and long-term care facilities, just as the dangerous delta variant was taking hold. Data has been disappearing recently in other states as well. Florida, for example, now reports Covid cases, deaths and hospitalizations once a week, instead of daily, as…

Hospitals uniting in COVID crisis message; nursing homes face vaccination pressure

Metro Atlanta hospital systems are uniting to deliver a public message about the increasingly grim picture on the COVID front lines. Representatives from the Wellstar, Piedmont, Emory and Grady systems – often competitors in non-pandemic times  – along with those from Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Gainesville-based Northeast Georgia Health System, will address the media Thursday morning…

Commentary: The scourge of menthol cigarettes

A 1998 federal government report described how African-Americans were bearing the biggest burden from cigarette smoking. The U.S. Surgeon General who released that report was Dr. David Satcher. Now Satcher, founder of the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, is reaffirming the importance of the issue of menthol cigarettes’ harm…