Once again, the kids at Benjamin Preparatory School can’t go outside for recess. The school, which serves infants to second-graders, is keeping the kids indoors because a toxic gas, ethylene oxide, is once again being used to sterilize medical equipment at a facility about a mile away, in suburban Atlanta. School officials want state regulators…
“The safety net is stretched to the max.’’ Judy Fitzgerald, commissioner of the agency that oversees mental health and substance abuse services, gave that stark assessment in January to state legislators who were considering budget cuts to her department. Now, even deeper cuts are on the table. Georgia’s budget plans of just a few months…
Of Georgia’s more than 1,100 COVID-19 deaths, 12% are from long-term care facilities in a region that holds just 3% of the state’s population. As the state reopens, staff know that risks of exposure will only increase. By Max Blau This article was produced in partnership with ProPublica. Georgia Health News is a member of…
By Katja Ridderbusch Fabian Kausche doesn’t plan on getting a tattoo any time soon, and without much hair, a visit to the barber shop isn’t a priority either. Even though personally, he may be safe to do so. In mid-March, Kausche tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. He was ill…
Calls to the Georgia Poison Center have risen during the pandemic, with a spike in people reporting illnesses related to cleaning products and disinfectants. Those increases have occurred nationally, with poison centers seeing up to a 20 percent rise in exposure calls related to cleaning and disinfecting products, often from inhalation. It has been a…
President Trump said Wednesday that he disagrees with Gov. Brian Kemp’s decision on reopening certain businesses. Kemp’s bold move on reopening – arguably the most aggressive timeline of any state — has put Georgia squarely in a national spotlight on COVID-19. The governor is allowing the reopening Friday of businesses that include gyms, fitness centers,…
No Georgia city has seen more devastation from COVID-19 than Albany, which has among the highest per-capita death rates from the virus in the United States. Albany Mayor Bo Dorough joined several other Georgia mayors, mostly fellow Democrats, in criticizing Gov. Brian Kemp’s plan to let some businesses reopen starting later this week. The plan…
The average age of death from the coronavirus is 80, the U.S. surgeon general said earlier this month. Dr. Jerome Adams apparently was referring to the global average. The latest statistics here in Georgia, though, show the average age of death from COVID-19 is 68. Though there are exceptions, deaths and serious illnesses from the…
The new coronavirus has struck a southwest Georgia hospital with hurricane-like force. Just hours after Gov. Brian Kemp declared a public health emergency Saturday over the virus, Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital officials were notified that seven of its patients tested positive for COVID-19. The Albany hospital already had been treating another individual who tested positive….
By Jillian Tracy, Madeline Laguaite, Brittany Carter and Andi Clements Before traveling to China in late January, Holly Bik and her husband watched countless news reports and read as much as they could about the novel coronavirus, which had been detected in the country a few weeks earlier. Bik’s husband is from China. (She prefers…