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PAGE 2A BARROW NEWS-JOURNAL WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2021 Almost 60% of new Georgia COVID cases are in K-12 BOC continued from 1A By Tim Darnell Capitol Beat News Service Almost 60% of all new COVID-19 cases are now in Georgia’s K-12 schools, the state’s top epidemiologist said Tuesday. Cherie Drenzek, state epi demiologist for the Georgia Department of Public Health, said the highly contagious delta variant is responsible for the surge. “The delta variant began spreading in Georgia around July 4,” Drenzek told a virtual meeting of the state’s Board of Public Health. "There has been an exponential increase in cases, hospitalizations and deaths over the last 60 days.” According to Tuesday’s COVID totals provided by the state Department of Pub lic Health, more than 1.1 million Georgians have con tracted coronavirus since the pandemic began in March 2020. A total of 20,806 Geor gians have died, and there have been more than 76,000 hospitalizations. According to data provid ed by Drenzek to the board, there has been a 20-fold in crease in cases; a 13-fold increase in hospitalizations; and a 17-fold increase in COVID deaths since July 1. However, both Gov. Brian Kemp's office and Drenzek said state data has begun to show slight decreases over the last seven days. Dr. R. Chris Rustin, direc tor of the department’s Di vision of Health Protection, said as of Tuesday, more than 10 million vaccine dos es have been administered in Georgia, with 4.7 million Georgians, or 45% of the state’s population, being ful ly vaccinated. About 5.4 mil lion of the state’s residents, or 53%, have received at least one vaccine dose. Rustin also said Georgia is offering 136 sites for mono clonal antibody treatments, commonly known as Regen- eron infusion. Rustin said preliminary data shows monoclonal an tibody therapy is effective mostly early in treatment. “You have to get it early on,” Rustin said, who add ed the state Department of Public Health is collaborat ing with the Department of Community Health to sup port the existing sites across the state. “It’s important to stress this is not a substitute for vaccines,” Rustin said. The treatment, according to the Southeast Georgia Health System, helps the immune system stop COVID-19 from spreading in people with mild to moderate symptoms. The antibodies are synthetic proteins that are manufac tured in a lab. The therapy, according to the health system, isn’t new; doctors have long used this treatment to deliver drugs or radioactive substances di rectly to cancer cells. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given monoclonal antibody therapy emergency use au thorization for the treatment of COVID-19. According to the FDA, clinical trials showed that COVID-19 patients who re ceived antibody infusions had a significant reduction in hospitalizations and deaths compared to patients who re ceived a placebo. Florida is one state that has launched a statewide initia tive that offers the treatment at 21 sites. While Georgia offers the treatment at far more sites than its Sunshine State neighbor, it seemingly has no plans to sponsor a state wide program. When asked by Capitol Beat if Gov. Brian Kemp has any plans for such an initia tive, the governor’s office referred to Kemp's Aug. 24 authorization of 105 Georgia National Guard personnel to 10 hospitals around the state. “This Georgia National Guard mission is in addition to the 2,800 state-support ed staff and 450 new beds brought online, at a total state investment of $625 mil lion through December of this year,” Kemp said. R-l zoning, which attorneys said was likely an oversight. •approved a special-use re quest for a convenience store in an Agricultural Commercial zoning district at 856 Atlanta Hwy., Auburn. •approved a special-use re quest for a wedding venue at 288 He Gardens Dr., Winder. •approved a developer par ticipation agreement for the Ingles lift-station upgrades in Auburn to accommodate addi tional planned residential sub divisions in the area. The devel opers of planned the projects are covering the costs of the upgrade and expansion, which has an estimated $2.2 million price tag. •approved an agreement with Golden Productions to manage the 45 calendar-year days that the county has rights to the In novation Amphitheater under an agreement with the Barrow County School System. Golden Productions will lease the facil ity from the county at a rate of $1,000 per day for a total con tract amount of $4,500. •approved an agreement with the Georgia Department of Transportation for the county to provide right of way mowing and maintenance for the future roundabout at State Route 11/ Jefferson Highway and State Route 211/Rockwell Church Road once construction is com pleted. •approved an agreement with GDOT for the county to provide operation and maintenance of the lighting system West Wind er Bypass/SR 316 interchange. •approved a letter of support from the county for a poten tial roundabout at SR 211 and Dee Kennedy Road. GDOT is studying the possibility of con structing a roundabout at the location, county public works director Chris Yancey said, add ing that if construction were to proceed, the county would be responsible for electrical and maintenance costs. •approved a replacement of a wing wall in the county’s right of way at 101 Pleasant Hill Church Rd. in the amount of $68,246. •approved an annual mainte nance and support fee for the county’s CAD system in the amount of $27,585. •accepted a $1,400 grant from the Superior Court Judges Judi cial Council. The funds can be used for drug-testing supplies, travel and “program-specific” equipment. •approved a resolution re ducing the size of the Board of Tax Assessors from five to three members. The board was originally three members when it formed and increased to five seats over time, but the county has had difficulty finding peo ple to fill all the seats, county manager Kevin Little said. •reappointed Beth Buchanan to the Board of Tax Assessors for a six-year term that is set to expire Oct. 1, 2027. •met in closed session for about 30 minutes at the end of the meeting to discuss pending and potential litigation. No ac tion was taken as a result of the session. continued from 1A implications of the charter amendments. He contend ed that implementing the 3-mill cap would jeopar dize police and fire depart ment funding and would severely limit the city’s ability to make improve ments to its roads and bor row funds for various pub lic safety and infrastructure improvements while elimi nating “many services.” Maynard’s harshest cri tique was of the citizens’ veto measure, which would allow citizens to follow the same petition process to initiate a referendum to overturn any council votes. “This would amount to government by social me dia,” he wrote. “You would no longer be able to use your property as allowed by law because ‘the citi zens’ can change the law. Job creation and economic development would cease. Businesses require certain ty in law to operate. With out this certainty, busi nesses will take their jobs elsewhere and no new jobs will come to Winder. “This petition for a cit izen veto would create an unstable and chaotic city government. For example, every time someone re ceives a citation they could attempt to repeal the ordi nance. Each effort to re peal an action of the city council would require the city’s citizens to fund the cost of the veto election and any associated legal ac tion — driving up cost and driving down efficiency in operations and distracting the city from its mission of providing critical services. “The city would no lon ger be able to contract with others because the veto would make any agree ment uncertain. Suppli ers, contractors and others would not be willing to make agreements or con tracts with the city. The city would have great difficulty in obtaining needed sup plies and services for the people of Winder. In a Facebook response video, Burton claimed that Maynard deliberately mis- characterized the intent of the petitions and said the mayor “is trying to spread around a bunch of propa ganda.” “This is not a mayor who is not worried,” she said. “This is a mayor who seems very concerned at the fact that his power and refusal to listen to the cit izens is being threatened. If he were not worried, he would not be doing this.” Burton said the intent of the millage rate petition is not to cut police and fire department funding, but to oppose “wasteful spend ing.” And she said the cit izens’ veto measure would not target property rights. “This is not mob rule,” Burton said. “We live in a constitutional republic. I do not believe in pure democ racy. There has to be some sort of political process in order to affect change with in your communities.” As for the debate on term limits, Maynard, who is in his third term as mayor and has twice been re-elect ed without opposition, claimed that imposing term limits would “remove” residents’ choice to elect whom they believe is “the best person for the job.” “We already have term /^^^^.Considering uTM-R) J) buying or selling? 770-867-9026 www.maynardrealty.com limits; they are called elec tions.” he said. While the presidency is the only federal office that carries constitutional term limits, 36 states, including Georgia, have term lim its on their governors, and 15 states have placed term limits on state legislators. Municipal and county-level term limits vary across the country, though there are currently no limits in Bar- row County or its munici palities. “Term limits are not a new thing,” Burton said in response to Maynard’s point. “Government is not a thing people are supposed to be making a career of.” Burton said this week she did not have a firm number of signatures collected so far on the petitions but that she was planning a signing event at the St. Ives subdi vision pool from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and eyeing other events as well. Res idents are able to request copies of the petitions from the city clerk’s office. OAK GROVE BAPTIST CHURCH 4921 Jackson Trail Road Hoschton, GA Sunday School: 9:45 a.m. Morning Worship: 11:00 a.m. Sunday Evening Worship: 6:00 p.m. Wednesday Evening Worship: 7:00 p.m. 706-367-2777 Pastor, Robbie Black Fundamental Independent Baptist “A Heart for the World, A Home for Your Family” GOT TRASH? Call 770-725-ROLL SMALL ENOUGH TO KNOW YOU LARGE ENOUGH TO SERVE YOU! 1100 B. Garrett Dr. Statham, GA 30666 12678 www.rolloffsystems.com 4982 Bristol Industrial Way • Buford, GA 30518 770-831-8955 phone • 770-831-8956 fax E2I lj<*J mathiscollision@bellsoutli.net SIMPSON TRUCKING & GRADING 770-536-4731 All Major Credit Cards Accepted a*o ie~ • Mulch •Top Soil • Fill Dirt ►Gravel - Spreader Truck Available www.simpsontrucking.com • FORD • CHRYSLER • DODGE • JEEP 770-867-9136 W. May St., Winder If you would like to be a sponsor, please call Susan Treadwell at 678-863-1014 ATTEND THE CHURCH OF YOUR CHDICE We Are All Connected And all who believed were together and had all things in common; and they sold their possessions and goods, and distributed them to all, as any had need. R.S.V. Acts 2:44-45 A ristotle claimed that humans are political animals, meaning that we live in a political society or community, remarking further that only a beast or a god would live by himself away from others. One implication of this view is that our minds are part and parcel of the social fabric. Our minds develop socially, by being raised to speak a particular language in a particular culture. And we are literally connected to other people's brains in that the smile on our face will register in their brain and cause their brain to make them smile, and their smiles will have the same effect on us. We have been taught the message of individualism for so long that we don't often see the many ways in which we are connected. Our minds truly are social, think of how often we complete each other's sentences or feel each other's joys and sorrows. But, the philosophy of individualism emphasizes our separateness and makes us think that we can be just as fully human as distinct individuals, as we can when we are part of a larger group like a family or a society. Since we live in a world where it is possible to live alone, and more people are choosing to do so, it appears that at times we hold up the individual as more important than the collective. cMeiriotud tPaiA SOUTH Funeral Home and Cemetery The Area's Only Full Service Funeral Home 4121 Falcon Pkwy. ( Flowery Branch w . Just 1/4 mile N. of id Falcon Training Complex ^|| p re f 770-967-5555 | Arrangements j Farmer’s Prescription Shop 770-867-9072 Matthew 9:22 Isaiah 53:5 Accepts: Trees - Stumps - Leaves Concrete - Cured Asphalt !j655 Patrick Industrial Dr. Winder ^> v 770-867-9402 winderinertlandfill.com PATRICK INERT LANDFILL INC. NEW HORIZONS MEDICAL INSTITUTE 12652 | 14 N. 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