The federal Environmental Protection Agency has removed lead-contaminated soil from more than 30 properties in west Atlanta as part of a major cleanup of the area. But there is early evidence that some contaminated properties won’t get the same treatment. The yard of Terboris Barnes contains a substantial amount of lead, but Barnes recently learned…
Georgia shattered its record for daily increases in COVID-19 deaths, reporting 137 new fatalities Tuesday. That’s 45 deaths higher than the previous daily record of 92, reported Friday. “These are reported deaths and doesn’t mean they died in the past 24 hours,’’ said Nancy Nydam, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Health. “The…
Georgia’s rate of COVID-19 cases among children is greater than the national average, according to a new report published by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association. Nationally, more than 97,000 new child cases were reported in a two-week period ending July 30, the report said. That’s a 40 percent increase in cases….
Georgia reported Friday what appears to be the highest single-day total of deaths from COVID-19 since the pandemic began. The 92 fatalities weren’t a sudden spike, but continue a daily trend of high numbers of deaths since late July. The state reported 94 deaths on April 20, but now the number of fatalities for that…
By Judi Kanne Henry County resident Audrey Benford was 10 when she arrived at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta in December 2018, after her pediatrician diagnosed her with scoliosis. The news that she would have to wear a back brace to help correct a curvature in her spine was about the last thing this sports-loving pre-teen cheerleader…
Georgia remained No. 38 among states in an annual analysis of the well-being of children. The 2020 Kids Count Data Book, released last week, is based on 2018 and 2019 figures and doesn’t reflect the devastation from the COVID-19 pandemic. While the disease is rarely serious for younger people who are infected, its overall impact on…
Pregnant women who are infected with COVID-19 are more at risk for severe illness than other women who have the virus, a CDC study released Thursday has found. The analysis determined that pregnant women with COVID had higher rates of hospitalization and increased risk for ICU admission and need for mechanical ventilation. The risk of…
Four physician groups strongly endorsed a state tobacco tax increase Sunday, a day before a possible vote on the issue in a state Senate committee. “Georgia having the third-lowest tobacco tax in the country has long been unacceptable to Georgia’s medical community,” Dr. Jacqueline Fincher, a Thomson physician and a leader of the American College…
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…
Story updated Georgia has received a federal shipment of a promising drug to treat seriously ill COVID-19 patients, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Tuesday. “We have received 30 cases with 40 vials of the drug per case, and we will be working with officials in the Department of Public Health to determine how it will be…