About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 22, 2020)
Sheriff’s Office, Dixon family receive wood-crafted badges honoring slain deputy, inside, m Tuesday, December 22,20201 GAINESVILLE, GEORGIA | gainesvilletimes.com Experience some Christmas magic at these light displays in Hall County. LIFE, 4A NGHS: Nearly 1K vaccine doses given Ga. Department of Health launching dashboard to track COVID-19 injection info BY NICK WATSON nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com Nearly 1,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered to Northeast Georgia Health System employees as of Monday, Dec. 21, and Hall County EMS work ers started getting vaccinated at the Chicopee Woods Agricultural Center. The health system received nearly 5,000 Pfizer vaccine doses Thursday, Dec. 17, and the first seven NGHS health care workers got the vaccine at Gainesville’s Northeast Georgia Medical Center. NGHS spokesman Sean Couch said nearly 1,000 first doses were administered by the end of Monday with the hope to have the rest of the vaccine ship ment administered by the end of December. Couch said they are expecting another Pfizer shipment and the first Moderna shipment by the end of the month, though they do not know how many doses will come. NGHS reported 272 confirmed COVID-19 positive patients Thurs day, Dec. 21, with another 63 patients awaiting test results. District 2 Public Health received 975 doses last week, and EMS employees can get the vaccine by appointment starting 8 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 22, at the Chicopee Woods Agricultural Center on Cal vary Church Road. Hall County Emergency Man agement Agency Director Casey Ramsey did not return requests for comment Monday. The Georgia Department of Public Health announced Monday a vaccine dashboard to track the shipment and allocation of vac cines as well as doses administered. DPH spokeswoman Nancy Nydam said the department will list vac cine distributors on its website. DPH also announced 174,000 Moderna vaccine doses allocated to Georgia and a second Pfizer shipment of 60,000 doses this week. One third of the Pfizer shipment will go toward long-term care facil ities, and Nydam said vaccination would begin Dec. 28. CVS Health is expected to administer doses in 644 Georgia skilled nursing and assisted liv ing facilities, according to a news release. Kerry Smith, NGHS director of long-term care, said Monday they have started vaccinating staff members at the health system’s long-term care facilities and will continue this week. Smith said they hope to begin vaccinating the long term care residents before the end of the year. NGHS officials said Thursday that the vaccine would not be man dated for employees but strongly encouraged. Smith said long-term care residents and staff will not be required to get the vaccine. Smith said some are excited while others are hesitant about get ting the vaccine. “The main thing we’re doing right now for our residents, and even our staff, is making sure they’re educated about the COVID- 19 vaccine so they can make the decision that’s right for them,” Smith said. ■ Please see RELIEF, 5A Dr. Salcin, left, meets with fellow residents Wednesday, Dec. 16, prior to shift-change after a 12-hour shift. Hometown heroes COVID-19 has been hard on many, but for these frontline health care workers, its effects are an everyday reality. Over the next two weeks, we share the stories of a few of those who have risen to the occasion and done their jobs well in the face of unmatched pressure professionally and sometimes personally. We need heroes in this battle, and through their dedication, they have shown us what that looks like. We worked with Northeast Georgia Health System to identify those we are profiling. If you have a story about a frontline health care worker who has made a difference, please submit your story to news@gainesvilletimes.com. Dr. Sameena Salcin began her career as a resident physician at Northeast Georgia Medical Center with “a year full of challenges,” she said, as she has been admitting five or six COVID-19 patients per shift as the pandemic continues through its ninth month. “The mental, emotional and physi cal drain that this pandemic has had on health care workers is quite astounding,” Salcin said. “I think there’s an overlying layer of stress in the hospital that didn’t exist before.” Salcin, who is from Atlanta, began her internal medicine residency at NGMC in July 2019 as part of the first group of residents in the hospital’s graduate medi cal education program. She has most recently been working the night shift at NGMC, admitting patients from the emer gency department, which she said has been overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases. “That’s all we’re seeing coming out of the ER, is just tons and tons of COVID,” Salcin said. She arrives at the hospital at about 7 p.m., then begins admitting patients at about 9 p.m. until 6:30 a.m., she said. Then, she meets with the day shift team before leaving at about 7 a.m. The hospital has stayed near capacity in recent weeks — NGMC Gainesville had 26 available beds on Monday, Dec. 21, while the Braselton hospital had 12 beds. Patient numbers at Northeast Georgia Health System facilities have set several records in recent weeks, and as of Mon day, Dec. 21, 272 were being treated across the health system. That number is just below a peak of 279 set on Saturday, Dec. 19. NGHS has set up an overflow treatment space in a gym at Laurelwood, a mental health facility on the Gainesville campus. The Gainesville hospital also has a 20-bed mobile unit near the North Tower, and the Gainesville and Braselton hospitals have tents outside the emergency depart ments for extra space. Salcin said the limited bed space is concerning for all patients and providers, whether a patient has COVID-19 or not. ■ Please see SALCIN, 6A Free Chapel’s Franklin tests positive for COVID-19 BY KELSEY P0D0 kpodo@gainesvilletimes.com Jentezen Franklin, senior pastor of Free Chapel, has tested positive for COVID-19 and is experiencing mild symptoms, according to an official announcement from the megachurch on Monday. Franklin was exposed to “an associate of the congre gation in the metro (Atlanta area) on Thursday who turned out to be infected,” Free Chapel Executive Pas tor Tracy Page said in the church’s statement. Franklin is in consultation with his personal physician and is self-isolating, church officials say. Before testing positive, Franklin had planned to lead a candlelight service at the Gainesville campus’ outdoor amphitheater. Free Chapel has since decided to move its in-person East Coast Christmas Eve services online. People can view the virtual experience at 5 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 24, at freechapel.org. “We hope you have a special and meaning ful Christmas this year with your family,” Page said. “This will be a Christmas like no other for so many people but Jesus is still the light of the world.” House passes $900 billion relief package BY ANDREW TAYLOR Associated Press WASHINGTON — The House easily passed a $900 billion pandemic relief package Monday night that would finally deliver long-sought cash to businesses and individuals and resources to vaccinate a nation confronting a frightening surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths. Lawmakers tacked on a $1.4 trillion catchall spending bill and thousands of pages of other end-of-session business in a massive bundle of bipartisan legislation as Capitol Hill prepared to close the books on the year. The lopsided 359-53 vote was a bipartisan coda to months of partisanship, politicking as lawmakers wrangled over the relief question, a logjam that broke after President-elect Joe Biden urged his party to accept a compromise with top Republicans that is smaller than many Democrats would have liked. The relief package, unveiled Monday after noon, sped through the House in a matter of hours. A Senate vote that would send the bill to President Donald Trump appeared likely to fol low soon. The bill combines coronavirus-fighting funds with financial relief for individuals and busi nesses. It would establish a temporary $300 per week supplemental jobless benefit and a $600 direct stimulus payment to most Americans, along with a new round of subsidies for hard- hit businesses, restaurants, and theaters and money for schools, health care providers and renters facing eviction. The 5,593-page legislation — by far the lon gest bill ever — came together Sunday after months of battling, posturing and postelection Photos by SCOTT ROGERS I The Times Dr. Sameena Salcin is a second year resident physician with Northeast Georgia Medical Center who has been treating COVID-19 patients. NGMC resident physician reflects on pandemic as numbers rise BY MEGAN REED mreed@gainesvilletimes.com ‘It’s exhausting’
