About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (April 11, 2020)
WEEKEND EDITION - April 11-12, 2020 | $2.00 | GAINESVILLE, GEORGIA | gainesvilletimes.com Honestly Local Businesses adjust to life in pandemic From sick leave to social distancing, local companies have many new rules to navigate BY NATHAN BERG nberg@gainesvilletimes.com If you’ve left your house to go shopping in the last couple of weeks, you’ve probably noticed a few changes in local retail chains. Publix has installed plexiglass walls to separate customers from cashiers. At Lowes, social distanc ing squares dot the checkout lanes, helping shoppers stay six feet apart while waiting to pay. Target has reserved the first hour of shopping every Tuesday and Wednesday for higher risk patrons, such as the elderly, pregnant women or those with pre-existing conditions that make them more vulnerable to the effects of COVID-19. Many other retailers have set up similar shop ping times for those patrons. Most businesses are taking some sort of action to keep employees and customers safe, but that’s about as far as the constants go. The CDC has provided guidelines on what measures businesses should take and the Governor’s Office has followed up with some regulations to enforce those guidelines, but spe cifics are difficult to come by. The CDC and U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration have released employer guidelines for maintaining safe work spaces, ask ing businesses to switch to curbside or drive-through service where possible, increase sanitation proce dures and keep employees at least six feet apart from each other at all times. Gov. Brian Kemp’s statewide shelter in place order echoes those guidelines, requiring employee workspaces be at least six feet apart. The order allows flexibil ity, advising businesses enhance “sanitation of the workplace as appropriate” and provide personal protective equipment “as available and appropriate.” ■ Please see BUSINESS, 8A Testing for COVID-19 ramps up SCOTT ROGERS I The Times The Longstreet Clinic holds COVID-19 testing Friday, April 10, at a temporary drive-thru shelter in the parking lot of the clinic. Supply a concern; priority to symptomatic, high-risk groups BY JEFF GILL jgill@gainesvilletimes.com AND MEGAN REED mreed@gainesvilletimes.com Although COVID-19 testing is becom ing more widely available, testing is still being prioritized for higher-risk groups and those who have been exposed to the virus. Social distancing, however, can pre vent people from getting sick. Lacking the supplies “to test every body,” Jo Brewer, executive director of laboratory services for Northeast Geor gia Health System, insists people abide by Georgia’s shelter-in-place order. “We don’t have the supplies, and even commercial labs don’t have the capacity yet,” for wholesale testing, she said. “It is getting better with capacity and different vendors bringing forth COVID testing, but it is simply not quite enough yet to test asymptomatic people,” she ‘That’s why it’s critically important that everybody stay home. We really don’t have enough supplies... either in-house or external labs to test everybody.’ Jo Brewer executive director of laboratory services for NGHS said. “And there’s a bunch of them out there, spreading the disease.” Brewer said estimates show that up to half of the population is asymptomatic, meaning they’re infected even though not showing symptoms. “That’s why it’s critically important that everybody stay home,” she said. “We really don’t have enough supplies ... either in-house or external labs to test everybody.” COVID-19 testing that’s on the market now is mostly uniform among patients and involves swabbing a patient’s nose or throat to collect a specimen to test. It “is very sensitive and very accurate,” Brewer said. Several medical providers are doing testing, including the health system as well as primary care and urgent care facilities and the state Department of Public Health. There is a shortage of supplies needed to collect specimens, Dr. Joe Conway, lab oratory medical director for Northeast Georgia Medical Center Gainesville, said. “We can’t use wooden swabs with cot ton tips, because that would give us a false ■ Please see LABS, 9A $600jobless supplements to begin next week BY SHANNON CASAS scasas@gainesvilletimes.com Those receiving state unemployment ben efits could begin getting a $600 supplement per week as early as next week. The Georgia Department of Labor announced Friday that it is updating its system to distribute the federal unemployment funds as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Eco nomic Security Act. The $600 is part of the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program and is provided to any individual eligible for any of the state and federal unemployment compen sation programs, according to a news release from GDOL. The $600 is on top of state benefits. The number of Georgia workers seeking jobless benefits last week surged to more than 390,000, eclipsing the total number of unem ployment claims the state saw in all of 2019, as efforts to contain the coronavirus batter the economy. Georgians can visit the GDOL website at www.dol.georgia.gov to access applications, step-by-step instructions, and video tutorials on applying for unemployment. “The GDOL will begin sending this additional payment to those currently receiving state unemployment benefits beginning next week,” according to the news release. “This supple ment will be an additional payment to regu lar weekly state unemployment benefits and will include all eligible weeks beginning with the week ending 4/4/2020. The supplement amount is contingent upon any deductions required by the state or federal government.” GDOL is also working to provide unemploy ment benefits for those not usually eligible for them. The Pandemic Unemployment Assis tance program will help those who are self- employed, gig workers, 1099 independent contractors, employees of churches, employ ees of nonprofits and those with limited work history. Millions of these workers who were prom ised they would qualify for unemployment ben efits for the first time during the coronavirus pandemic have been in limbo as the federal government and states scramble to implement that part of the $2.2 trillion relief package. Under federal rules, people will receive ben efits backdated to when they became unem ployed because of the coronavirus, not to when they apply. So in the end, workers should not ■ Please see CARES, 6A DEATHS 2B Willie “Dan” Armour, 57 Kaneesha Bailey, 29 Johnny Barthell, 74 Stacy Black, 55 Uriah Blake, 29 Robert Boren, 49 Melissa Brasil, 42 Hilda Clark, 70 Joseph Corral, 73 Norman Daugherty, Jr. Michael Fry, 50 Joseph Hamner, 78 Ron Higgins, Sr., 58 James Holtzclaw Hartwell Jarrett, 80 James Jones, 69 Jean Kepshire, 98 Rosa Lee Kesler, 90 Sandra Kiser, 72 Herman Ledford, 78 Deborah Major, 67 Rose Mesidor, 69 Terry Mintz, 63 David Morgan, 61 Elaine Mote, 65 Marcus Perez, 46 Katherine Phillips, 76 William Picklesimer, 87 Thedis Pittman, 94 Anthony Roberts, 75 Alice Scroggs, 82 Jackie Tinsley, 59 Linda Tuck, 71 Penny Whitley, 67 0 4 0 9 01 06825 9 join the fight, please give. nghs.com/give. Northeast Georgia Health System FOUNDATION
