About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (April 16, 2020)
THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020 | GAINESVILLE, GEORGIA | gainesvilletimes.com Honestly Local State confirms 5 Hall COVID-19 deaths BY SHANNON CASAS scasas@gainesvilletimes.com Hall County’s first official COVID-19 deaths were docu mented April 15 by the state Department of Public Health, which listed five dead as of 7 p.m. The Times reported earlier this month that a local assisted living facility was notified a resident had died with COVID-19 on April 3. Data provided by DPH is delayed as the agency works to verify information it reports on cases and deaths. Cases are listed by county of residence, and the location may be listed as unknown before state epidemiologists verify it. At Northeast Georgia Health System’s facilities, data is input in real time into Epic, the system’s electronic health record system, spokesman Sean Couch said. It is then entered daily into DPH’s sys tem by NGHS employees. DPH spokeswoman Nancy Nydam noted “there is a lag time in death reporting, and we do get death reports in a couple of differ ent ways,” but she said she didn’t believe there were any problems on their end with the data. The hospital has declined to provide the number of deaths in its facilities, referring to the offi cial tally from DPH. The hospital serves Hall County and the sur rounding region. A total of 402 cases of COVID-19 were reported in Hall County in the state data provided at 7 p.m. April 15. The per capita rate was 194.1 per 100,000 residents, which is the high est in the Northeast Georgia area. The coronavirus’s toll in Geor gia grew to more than 15,260 con firmed infections and 576 deaths. Nearly 20% of those testing positive for the virus have been hospitalized. Interpreting data has been diffi cult as testing throughout the state has been limited and data delayed. Gov. Brian Kemp and the state health agency’s commissioner, Dr. Kathleen Toomey, have both openly expressed frustration at the limited availability of testing in Georgia. As of Wednesday, just over 4,000 tests for the disease had been processed by state labs, com pared with nearly 60,000 Georgia tests handled by commercial labs. Without more widespread test ing, it’s impossible for health offi cials to accurately track the spread of the virus. ■ Please see DPH, 3A Funding to fly Photos by SCOTT ROGERS I The Times Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport is eligible for $69,000 in funds through the CARES Act. The city will have to apply for the funds. Gainesville’s airport could get $69,000 COVID-19 relief grant BY MEGAN REED mreed@gainesvilletimes.com Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport in Gainesville will be eligible for $69,000 in grant funding through the CARES Act, the federal coronavirus relief legislation passed by Congress in March. Lisa Poole, the airport’s manager, said the airport will need to apply for the fund ing, and she is working with consultants to submit the request and determine how funds could be spent. While many grants are reserved for special projects, Poole said the CARES Act funding could be used for operational expenses. Poole said the airport has not been as busy as many people stay at home and businesses adjust their operations. “Gainesville has a lot of corporate travel. The businesses are not doing business as usual, so there’s a huge decline in corpo rate travel,” Poole said. "... General avia tion, your local pilots, they’re still able to fly, but since the shelter-in-place order was enacted, I believe a lot of them are staying at home. I’ve ridden through several times, and it’s pretty much a ghost town.” Poole said most of the airport’s revenue comes from rentals of aircraft hangars. She said none of the airport’s tenants have A 31-year-old man was found unrespon sive on the ground Wednesday in a wooded area behind the Browns Bridge Road Taco Bell, according to authorities. canceled their leases during the pandemic. “Everybody so far has kept their spots. I hope they can continue to do that, ” she said. “We’re at capacity anyway, so we have a pretty significant wait list for most of our hangars.... They would not want to give up their space unless they absolutely had to.” Several other Northeast Georgia air ports, including the Habersham County Airport in Cornelia and the Jackson County Airport in Jefferson, are also eli- Hall County Fire Services personnel were unable to resuscitate the man found around 4:30 a.m. Wednesday, April 15, near the intersection of Browns Bridge Road and Pearl Nix Parkway. Although Hall County Sheriff’s Office detectives are still investigating, there is gible for funding through the CARES Act. “As a hub for tourism and home to the busiest airport in the nation, Georgia has been hit hard by the dramatic decrease in air travel due to the coronavirus,” U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler said in a statement. “These grants will help Georgia airports maintain their crucial operations, pay employees and ensure they’ll be ready to operate at full capacity when it’s safe for all of us to travel again.” no evidence of foul play. One of the man’s acquaintances went to check on him at the location on Browns Bridge Road and called 911. The man has not yet been identified. The body was transported to the medi cal examiner for autopsy. IRS tool can check status of stimulus aid BY JEFF GILL jgill@galnesvllletimes.com Get My Payment, an IRS online tool allowing taxpayers to track when they may receive their economic stimulus payment, is up and running, two days earlier than expected. The site, which went up Wednesday, April 15, also allows users to enter their bank account information. Checks will go straight to bank accounts for those with direct deposit informa tion on file with the IRS. A Spanish version of Get My Payment is expected in a few weeks. “With an initial round of more than 80 mil lion Economic Impact Payments starting to hit bank accounts over the weekend and through out this week, this new tool will help address key common questions,” the IRS said in an email Wednesday. ■ Please see STIMULUS, 6A SBA stimulus loans about to dry up BY JEFF GILL jgill@galnesvilletimes.com The stimulus money available for Small Busi ness Administration loans could run out this week “at the rate we’re going,” Small Business Administration regional director Ashley Bell said Wednesday, April 15. As of Tuesday, April 14, the figure approached $280 bil lion nationally, he said. The total amount in the fed eral rescue package for small businesses was $349 billion. “The demand (for loans) is still very strong,” Bell said. As of Wednesday, there were 29,423 loans approved for Georgia businesses, nonprofit organizations and churches, and a statewide total $6,725 bil lion in loans, he said. The SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program began April 3 as a way for the government to issue potentially forgivable loans to cover 2 y 2 months of payroll, rent, mortgage interest and utility bills, regional director Ashley Bell said. The loan limit is $10 million. “The goal is we want businesses not to let people go during this time,” Bell said in an earlier inter view. “We want them to keep their employees.” Employees laid off since Feb. 15 “can be factored into this loan amount,” so they could potentially be rehired, he said. “Then, if you can show your lender that on June 30 that you kept (employees) on payroll, then we can forgive the entire loan,” Bell said. The turnaround time on SBA loans is about two weeks, Bell has said. On Wednesday, he said, “We’ve had people that had money in hand the same day. ” Also, businesses can seek a $10,000 emer gency advance against the loan at sba.gov until the loan is approved, and it doesn’t have to be paid back if the loan is denied. Businesses can receive those amounts within 72 hours, Bell said. Hall authorities investigating 31 -year-old man’s death BY NICK WATSON nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com
