About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (April 25, 2020)
eh t ettnes Weekend Edition - APRIL 25-26,20201 $2.00 | GAINESVILLE, GEORGIA | gainesvilletimes.com Flowery Branch QB has remained positive about football future after missing all of his senior season. SPORTS, 12B Hall a hotspot, could face staffing issues NGHS could hit capacity in early May, peak in COVID-19 cases in early June, model shows BY MEGAN REED mreed@gainesvilletimes.com Northeast Georgia Medical Center expects to reach its staff ing capacity May 4 and its peak in COVID-19 patients the first week of June. An influx of health care workers provided by the state could push that May 4 date back. NGHS uses a projection model developed at the University of Pennsylvania that considers sev eral factors such as regional popu lation, social distancing, length of hospital stays and what percent age of people with COVID-19 are hospitalized. As of Friday morning, the North east Georgia Health System was treating 132 patients with COVID- I Inside NGHS impact model predicts COVID-19 peak, 6A 19 at its four hospitals and New Horizons Limestone, a long-term care facility. As of Friday after noon, 239 COVID-19 patients had been treated and released from facilities, according to NGHS spokesman Sean Couch. The state Department of Health has reported 1,022 COVID-19 cases from Hall County and nine deaths as of 7 p.m. April 24, numbers that lag behind the NGMC data as state epidemiologists work to verify numbers submitted at the local level. The health system April 24 reported 1,094 positive cases among just the specimens NGHS and Longstreet collected. DPH and other providers also are collecting specimens for testing. The state data also puts Hall County’s per capita rate at 493.4 per 100,000 residents, which is the highest in North Georgia. Reasons why Hall is a hot spot for the virus may be related to socioeconomic trends. The virus has disproportionately affected the county’s Latino population, though hospital officials stress it’s an “equal opportunity virus.” “The most compelling trend we’ve seen in our data has been that the virus seems to be dispro portionately spreading along lower socioeconomic demographics,” Dr. Supriya Mannepalli, chair of NGMC’s Infection Prevention & Control Committee, said Friday. “It’s reasonable to think that’s likely due to those households hav ing less space to practice proper distancing, having multiple gen erations living together, having jobs where remote working isn’t an option, not being able to afford cleaning supplies, lack of access to accurate information, etc.” While the numbers of patients have been increasing, NGHS has also worked to increase its capacity. Carol Burrell, CEO of the health system, said in a Zoom call Wednesday with the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce that ICU capacity at the Gainesville and Braselton hospitals has increased from 91 to 134 beds, and medical- surgical bed capacity has been increased from 472 to 522. The sys tem has 108 ventilators, she said. Couch said 38% of the system’s ventilators were in use Friday afternoon. “These patients require much more acute staffing, sometimes two nurses to one patient in many cases. So, when we’ve added 50 beds, that would require an addi tional 100 nurses, which of course we obviously don’t have sitting in a back room anywhere,” Burrell said. “Plus, those that are here, they’re tired. It’s very intense work. They’re working overtime, and some of our employees are now testing positive.” NGHS has been communicating with the state about staffing and with other health systems about ■ Please see NGHS, 7A Surge expected in evictions after pandemic BY NICK WATSON nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com Though evictions, along with other court business, have been delayed, some officials are expecting a surge of cases when the doors open again. “Once the dust settles from this, it is our impression that we are going to have just an overflow dealing with evictions,” Ninth Dis trict Opportunity housing/program manager Michael Fisher said. “We’re trying to work cre atively as much as we can before that happens with as many people as we can.” Ninth District Opportunity is a nonprofit “community action agency” which serves the low-income community with housing help, heat ing assistance, emergency food assistance and more. A judicial emergency order was extended by Chief Superior Court Judge Kathlene Gos- selin April 2 to run through May 31. Trial juries and grand juries will not be held, and all sched uled civil hearings in Magistrate Court will be rescheduled once the emergency order is lifted. Since March 14, Magistrate Court has received 70 eviction filings from landlords. “Landlords are in a bind. Tenants are in a bind. It’s just kind of concerning on every end,” Chief Magistrate Court Judge Margaret Greg ory said. Gregory said 16 of those filed since March 14 were from individuals and the rest were filed by apartment complexes and attorneys. “This is much lower than usual, but I expect a fairly large influx when the emergency order expires,” Gregory said. The numbers on eviction filings fluctuate from month to month, as there were more than 500 filings between January and February, Gregory said. “Sometimes you get a big apartment complex that will file everything at one time, and we’ll get 50 in on one day,” she said. ■ Please see EVICTIONS, 9A ‘It’s too soon’ SCOTT ROGERS I The Times Funtastik! Family Entertainment Center owner Bud Lunsford bowls a frame Friday, April 24, shortly after opening for business. Bowling Alleys can now open again under Gov. Brian Kemp’s new state guidelines. Businesses can reopen, but many aren’t ready yet BY JEFF GILL jgill@gainesvilletimes.com Debbie Love was ready to reopen Gainesville’s bowling alley after it had been closed for a month because of COVID-19. “When you have a business, you need to be open all you can,” said Love, who helps run FunTastik! Gainesville Bowl off Browns Bridge Road in Gainesville. FunTastik! is taking necessary pre cautions, Love said. A family of up to six people can bowl in one lane, “and then to maintain that 6-foot minimum spacing, what we’re doing is skipping the entire next lane,” Love said. “That would actu ally be more than 6 feet (apart).” Bowling alleys were part of a large group of non-essential businesses allowed to reopen April 24 under new state guide lines. The group also includes hair salons, barbershops, fitness centers, tattoo art ists, massage therapists and personal trainers. Several were open around Hall County, but a huge number remained closed with signs on front doors explaining the reason — the coronavirus pandemic. Parking lots were empty in front of many gyms, hair salons and other businesses. Social distancing “is impossible to do in our line of work,” said Iliana Bates, who owns Genesis Massage in Gainesville with her husband. “It’s too risky, and I feel it’s too soon. We trust the advice of our local health care professionals over that of our politicians, and that’s why we will not be reopening at this time.” Emilie Cook, who runs Find Your Cen ter-Yoga Studio in Gainesville, said she would not reopen until Georgia sees 14 days of decreased cases and “until there ■ Please see BUSINESS, 8A DEATHS 2B Peggy Abell, 75 Karri Alonso, 26 Annie Anderson, 74 Susan Baldwin, 70 Beverly Bartlein, 88 Billy Bennett, 89 Doris Black, 86 Indy Bradley, 58 Patricia Bradley, 79 HiginiaCeron, 71 Linda Clayton, 69 Linda Coats, 71 James Croft, 80 Priscilla Daves, 71 Deborah Davis, 57 Lu DeMore, 74 Evelyn Elrod, 88 Irv Fisk, 92 Billy Gallahar Sr., 79 Linda Garmon, 73 Ernest Gilmore Jr., 87 Robert Giselbach, 87 Chester Gorman, 81 Douglas Henry, 71 Agustin Hernandez, 87 Michael Howard, 53 Lance Kelley, 64 Donald Lathem, 49 Lawrence Ledford, 84 Robert Lovell, 77 Evelyn Maddox, 82 Mary Martin, 81 James Mayhue, 46 Larry McCurley, 65 Sergio Morales, 46 Maggie Nelms, 81 John Odegaard, 93 Robin Palmer, 59 Dian Phipps, 32 Jose Ramirez-Garcia, 68 Ronald Ramsey, 89 Winston Reed, 29 Ana Rodila, 83 Virginia Roper, 82 Mary Ross, 92 Eula Smith, 89 Magdalena Tomas, 40 Woodie Ward, 87 0 Crystal Wilson, 35 Reta Woody, 63 4 0 9 01 06825 9 join the fight, please give. nghs.com/give. Northeast Georgia Health System FOUNDATION
