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THURSDAY. DECEMBER 24. 2020 PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS PAGE 3A
COVID-19 MOBILE TESTING
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ON SITE TESTING AT YOUR BUSINESS OR COMPANY
CALL TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT. (706) 692-0119
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Marine Corps League collecting for Toys for Tots
Marine Corps Mountain League Detachment 1280 at Walmart collecting for Toys for Tots. Shown are Brad May, Bill
Craig, John Murray, Troy Padgett and Steve Harrington.
Top Georgia health official takes COVID-19
vaccine, urges public trust in safety
Legislative committee
wraps up study of
coin operated
gaming machines
By Dave Williams
Bureau Chief
Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA - A state Sen
ate study committee created
to examine Georgia’s coin-
operated amusement ma
chines (COAM) business
has wrapped up its work
with some recommenda
tions but no specific legisla
tive proposals.
In a final report released
this week, the senators en
dorsed the possibility of
awarding gift cards to game
winners as a way to discour
age cash prizes, which are
illegal under state law.
The Georgia Lottery
Corp., which oversees the
COAM industry, has
launched a pilot project that
will test the gift cards con
cept at 100 to 300 locations
across the state, primarily
convenience stores and
restaurants.
Lottery officials like the
idea but haven’t committed
to it yet because the four-to-
six month pilot project has
n’t been completed,
Gretchen Corbin, the lot
tery’s president and CEO,
told members of the study
committee Thursday.
‘‘Everyone we speak to
hopes that it works,” she
said.
The report also sug
gested increasing the rev
enue the state derives from
COAM proceeds but
doesn’t recommend how to
accomplish that goal.
Options include either
increasing the state’s share
of the revenue pie from the
current 10% or growing the
revenue itself by increasing
the number of locations
with COAM games.
The COAM industry has
taken off since the lottery
corporation assumed juris
diction over the machines in
2013.
Georgians spent more
than $3 billion during the
last fiscal year playing
COAM games. After play
ers redeemed prizes valued
at $2.1 billion, that left
more than $900 million in
net revenue for COAM li
cense holders, the busi
nesses housing the games
and the state to divide.
By Beau Evans
Staff Writer
Capitol Beat News Service
Georgia’s top health offi
cial was among the first in
the state to receive the
COVID-19 vaccine as initial
doses rolled out in Atlanta
and Savannah this week.
Dr. Kathleen Toomey,
commissioner of the state
Department of Public Health,
was inoculated during a news
conference Thursday with
Gov. Brian Kemp to bolster
confidence in the vaccine’s
safety and effectiveness.
“This vaccine is safe, it’s
effective, and it will be the
tool to have so we can finally
move back to what we think
of as our Georgia lifestyle,”
Toomey said. “But we need
everyone’s help.”
Kemp said he’ll also get
the vaccine after it has been
administered to workers in
hospitals and health depart
ments, who are the first cate
gory of people to be
inoculated as they continue
battling a grueling spike in
COVID-19 outbreaks this
winter.
Officials like Kemp and
Toomey are pushing to dispel
doubts of whether the vac
cine is safe following a
speedy development timeline
that has worried some por
tions of the population.
Kemp said the vaccine is crit
ical to ending the pandemic’s
now nine-month reign in
Georgia.
“The work done to de
velop the vaccine has been
nothing short of a medical
miracle,” he said. “This vac
cine is safe, it is effective and
it is now on the way to the
people of this great state.”
The first COVID-19 vac
cines now rolling out were
developed with new technol
ogy that mimics the virus’
DNA to create immunity, not
by injecting small amounts of
virus as has traditionally been
done with vaccines. That
method helped developers
produce the vaccine within
months instead of years.
Cheyenne & Marty Salters welcome
Env&uiM Gobte,
Commissioner of the Department of Public Health Dr. Kathleen Tooney recieves the
first administration of the COVID-19 vaccine as Governor Brian Kemp looks on.
Recent test trials for the
vaccines have shown they’re
extremely effective in pre
venting sickness from the
virus and only tend to cause
headaches, arm pain around
the injection and mild, tem
porary under-the-weather
feelings as adverse reactions.
Georgia is slated to re
ceive about 85,000 doses of
the first vaccine by the phar
maceutical company Pfizer
that was approved for emer
gency use last week by the
U.S. Food and Drag Admin
istration.
Another vaccine by phar
maceutical company Mod-
ema is poised for
emergency-use approval this
week. Georgia officials ex
pect to receive around
174,000 doses.
Those early shipments
won’t be nearly enough for
the millions of Georgians
who each need to receive two
doses spaced weeks apart.
Public-health experts have
estimated as much as 70% of
the U.S. population needs to
be inoculated to halt COVID-
19’s spread.
Kemp urged Georgians to
have patience with state offi
cials tasked to distribute the
vaccine in the coming
months, first to health-care
care workers and nursing
homes where the virus has
taken its deadliest toll, then to
the general public by the
summer of 2021.
“This is going to be a
heavy logistical lift for the
state,” Kemp said. “We have
never undergone such a large
vaccination campaign in our
history.”
The governor also urged
Georgians to keep wearing
masks, social distancing and
washing their hands this hol
iday season before the vac
cine is more widely
available, as positive cases
and hospitalizations from
COVID-19 near peak levels
seen in July.
For now, Kemp added he
does not plan another
statewide shelter-in-place
order or other strict distanc
ing measures seen in the pan
demic’s early days.
“We’ve done this before,”
he said. “Our guidance has
hardly changed in a very long
time.”
Around 500,000 people in
Georgia have tested positive
for COVID-19, the disease
caused by the novel strain of
coronaviras that sparked a
global pandemic this year. As
of Thursday, the virus had
killed 9,358 Georgians.
to our
Happy Trails and Waggin'Tails
family.
Currently
booking
grooms
Tuesday-Friday
Drop offs as early
as 7:30 a.m.
Call 706-692-4239
today for an appointment
Text 470-210-9390
THE OLD
MULEHOUSE
GEORGIA DRINKS
The Old Mulehouse offers
a modern upscale twist to
the neighborhood tavern
with a creative chef-driven
menu, a full cocktail bar,
our signature mules, and
features beer and wine
from Georgia.
(706) 253-3440
OLDMULEHOUSE.COM
2 North Main Street
Jasper, Ga 30143
Open at I I a.m.Wed-Sun
closed Mon&Tues