As Georgia grapples with rock-bottom vaccination rates, Gov. Brian Kemp is encouraging more health care providers to think “outside the box.” At a pop-up vaccine clinic at the St. Philip AME Church in east Atlanta, the governor encouraged other providers to follow the lead of Walgreens, which launched three events through the Metro Atlanta Ministerial Alliance…
The farther from the core of metro Atlanta you go, the more people you can spot ignoring the drumbeat of advice from health experts about wearing masks and socially distancing. Read the full article: ajc.com
With the nationwide push to reopen schools, most states have begun vaccinating teachers, but not Georgia. Here, teachers are farther down the vaccination schedule after state leaders moved more older Georgians ahead of them. The change has angered educators. Some have protested school reopenings as COVID-19 has infected and even killed colleagues. Read the full…
Erratic reporting by long-term care facilities accounts for part of a startling spike in deaths reported in Georgia long-term care facilities last month. But the numbers primarily reflect a disturbing surge that came after the holidays, underscoring dangerous conditions that have persisted since the pandemic began. Read the full article: ajc.com
A year ago, Ryan Proffitt was a healthy 38-year-old language arts teacher at Lanier High School who loved playing tennis. Then he became sick. Months later, he’s still sick and 25 pounds lighter, battling long-term effects of what doctors now say was likely COVID-19. Read the full article: ajc.com
COVID-19 patients, 345 in all, filled about half of all the beds at NGHS hospitals on Jan. 8. Dozens of other patients were in the Emergency Department at the system’s Gainesville hospital waiting for a room. Some couldn’t even get in the ER. Even after one expansion after another throughout the pandemic — with tents…
Jim Galloway writes: “By the time most of you read this, my 41-year career at my hometown newspaper will have come to an end. It has been a pleasure, mostly — and an adventure, always.” Read the full article: ajc.com
With every passing day of record-breaking COVID-19 infections, the severely overburdened hospital system is now stressing the backbone of the state’s emergency medical response system. “I don’t know where our breaking point is, but I feel like we’re getting very close,” said Chad Black, director of the EMS Association of Georgia. Read the full article: ajc.com
The total number of Georgia National Guardsmen who have tested positive for COVID-19 has more than doubled to 800 since last summer, when hundreds were dispatched to help fight the spread of the disease and boost security amid the protests for racial justice. Read the full article: ajc.com
Any day now, weary health care workers in medical facilities throughout Georgia will be lining up to receive the first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine that’s expected to put America on a path to normalcy. At the same time, residents and workers will be rolling up their sleeves in the state’s nursing homes, which have…