About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 24, 2020)
w 1 1 xfr m . i Raffensperger calls for end to no-questions absentee voting. INSIDE, 4A Thursday, December 24,2020 | $1.00 | GAINESVILLE, GEORGIA | gainesvilletimes.com JUSar weignoor... IXif- has been o year iiru S lyecr because of COUid pemdenme.!. bJUS JVery LUprried becaus f couiolrH &e e l l ™%h h '£ er ' cJs auci &rn\ly.Vrhas been., ■T» rnftOc/i C\Ocl Vc* fntlo jer c* Io«\q \ irv-14 rJ? ope v° u d P nV fh.nk <4 Icommundy had Cotqe&fcr\ Vou J i/oci ore oecy louro* JWS hohdau htne. P hopt S°a con iretneber J V^M are Kfy l^pocfaniil: V/cu Honestly Local NGHS pleads caution at Christmas As COVID-19 cases double, hospital leaders warn continuing increase may require rationing care BY THOMAS HARTWELL thartwell @gainesvilletimes.com Officials at the Northeast Geor gia Health System have made a sobering plea to the community: take precautions this holiday sea son or local medical facilities may have to choose who they treat. “As the number of COVID-19 cases across the region, state and nation continue to climb, North east Georgia Health System lead ers are asking for your help - and warning another post-holiday spike may force them to start rationing care,” a news release from the sys tem said Wednesday, Dec. 23, ref erencing an ongoing rise in cases observed after the Thanksgiving holiday. Since Nov. 24, two days before Thanksgiving and just a month ago, cases of COVID-19 positive patients at NGHS facilities have more than doubled from 133 Nov. 24 to 296 Dec. 23. Health system leaders said they’re struggling to find staff and space to care for the number of people they’re seeing come into NGHS facilities, and “frontline workers are exhausted.” “If COVID cases continue to increase, we may be forced to start making decisions about who we can treat effectively and who we have to send elsewhere or turn away,” said Dr. Clifton Hastings, chief of medical staff for Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gaines ville. “That’s a decision no physi cian should have to make, and a situation no one in our community should have to face.” On Wednesday, Dec. 23, the system saw its highest number of COVID-19-positive patients being treated at its facilities since the beginning of the pandemic in March — 296. That new peak rose above a previous one set on Dec. 19, at 279. The system has, since Thanksgiving, seen several new peaks in case numbers at NGHS facilities.The average percentage of COVID-19 tests administered by the health system that come back positive has also risen sharply in the same period, from 16% to 28%, according to the NGHS release. NGMC on Wednesday reported there were eight available beds in the hospital, and only two in the intensive care unit. The Braselton hospital reported 12 available beds and four in ICU. NGHS is already using overflow space in a gym on the NGMC cam pus for less critical patients and has a mobile unit made of ship ping containers set up outside the hospital. “Early in the pandemic, we learned that limiting some ser vices and expanding others can create additional space to care for patients - which we’ve continued to do - but we’re still faced with the challenge of maintaining enough qualified physicians and nurses to provide high-quality care,” said Dr. John Delzell, COVID-19 incident commander for NGHS. “We’re extremely thankful for the staffing support the state has supplied, and we will continue to request additional help, but hospi tals across the state all need those same resources.” NGHS received nearly 5,000 doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vac cine on Dec. 17 and has vaccinated approximately 2,000 frontline workers during the past week, the health system reported Thursday. The system also received around 1,500 doses of the Moderna vaccine on Thursday, Dec. 23, and more shipments are expected in early January. “It’s important to remember that vaccination isn’t a magic bullet that will end the pandemic imme diately,” said Dr. Supriya Man- nepalli, NGMC’s medical director of infectious disease medicine. “People are tired of hearing this, but the best way to protect your self, the people you love and your community this holiday season is to not visit family and friends out side your household, or take pre cautions if you do.” The Georgia Department of Public Health, too, is sounding the alarms and identifying Hall County as a hotspot. ■ Please see COVID, 3A Finding the constants Braselton urgent care doc manages ‘hefty load’ of virus patients BY NICK WATSON nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com Like a pitcher going for a perfect game, Dr. Sakib Maya has superstitions. But instead of a pair of lucky socks or a rabbit’s foot, it’s raspberries and T-shirts. Maya said he tries to have a small box of raspberries frequently with his breakfast, believing in the power of the antioxidants and vitamin C to propel him. “People make fun of me at work saying, ‘Hey, there he goes eating his raspberries.’ But I feel like that’s what’s keeping me going,” Maya said, adding the tradition came from flu season. “I feel like that’s going to keep me away from all the illness that I’m facing.” When he comes to work, it’s always T-shirts and scrub bot toms, but no scrub tops until the first patient. “I guess that’s why I like baseball because I’m very superstitious,” he said. “When something works, I stick with it.” It’s a pair of constants in a medical world that evolves and changes every day in his work at the Braselton urgent care clinic. Maya tries to get to work a few minutes before his 8 a.m. 12-hour shift along with others on his staff. “Every morning we just regroup,” he said. “We’re like, ‘Hey, what are we doing today? What went wrong yes terday that we can change today?”’ While they still have the same urgent care needs as they always do — ankle frac tures, falls, headaches — there has been a new “hefty load” from COVID-19 test ing and managing patients’ COVID symptoms, Maya said. Northeast Georgia Health System officials said the Bra selton location is the busiest of its urgent care centers, see ing 25% more patient volume than anticipated. Maya said he attends to roughly 40-50 patients each day, but the work doesn’t end there. He sees roughly two to three patients every 20 min utes, and he’ll receive three or four emails that need instant answers because of issues another medical provider might be facing like a prob lem with personal protective equipment. After Thanksgiving, fami lies of six or more would come all at once to get tested, fear ing they had been exposed to the virus. If a school experi ences a breakout, Maya can expect to see all of their class mates, teachers and staff com ing to urgent care. m ' • w |P| iWf i hi anr -jfkj J / / / i 1 L. \ / / a; | | .: ? 8 r pW In n SCOTT ROGERS I The Times Dr. Sakib Maya works at one of the busiest urgent cares across the Northeast Georgia Health System network, seeing roughly 40 COVID patients per day. Maya and wife Hareem have a daughter Samara. 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. Maya said it was middle to late May when he realized COVID was here to stay and accepted it as the new norm, but the turning point was when a handful of his hospital friends came for testing. People he had hung out with and seen their smiling faces now looked like they were fighting for their lives, Maya said. “I saw how miserable they looked,” Maya said. “They looked like hell, because par tially they had been working crazy hours and second they had been having a headache nonstop for 10 days. That’s when it hit me that this thing is real.” These past nine months have been nothing compared to med school or residency, Maya said. “I hear from my own staff,” he said. “They’ve seen me work for the past four years ■ Please see MAYA, 3A Slightly white Christmas could happen BY THOMAS HARTWELL thartwell@gainesvilletimes.com Yes, it is possible that this Christmas could be (very slightly) white in Hall County, accord ing to forecasters, but don’t expect to build a snowman. With rain expected beginning Thursday morning and temperatures dropping into the 20s Christmas Eve and into Christmas Day, Katie Martin, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Peachtree City office, said Hall could see some snow showers. But, Martin said, Hall isn’t likely to see much, if any, accumulation — just a dusting. The “higher peaks” of the North Georgia mountains, meanwhile, could see an inch or so pile up, she said. Martin said Hall flurries could begin, mixed in with rain, around 7 p.m. Christmas Eve, and the chance of snow continues until about 1 a.m. Christmas. “It’ll be fairly short-lived that you’ll see some wintry precipitation,” she said, adding that there may be a brief “snow covering on the grass, but nothing too impactful.” Temperatures are expected to remain in the low 30s on Christmas Day, with a wind chill in the teens, Martin said. But warmer weather will ■ Please see WEATHER, 4A Election board rejects Hall voter challenges BY JEFF GILL jgill@gainesvilletimes.com Four challenges to local voting in Georgia’s Jan. 5 runoff were rejected by the Hall County Board of Elections Wednesday, Dec. 23. Ricky McQueen, Theresa Webb and Chris Fetterman all were asking the board to find that probable cause existed in challenges that there may be people not eligible to vote in Hall because they have changes of address on file with the U.S. Postal Service. And a fourth person, Robert Michael Smith, challenged the votes of 40 residents who regis tered to vote between Nov. 4 and Dec. 7, “as well as some voters he’s challenging for residency requirements,” election director Lori Wurtz said. “Is it legal for a person to register between a general and runoff election?” Board Chair man Tom Smiley asked County Attorney Van Stephens. “Yes, sir,” Stephens said, adding an election ■ Please see ELECTORS, 4A Times holiday closings The offices of The Times will close at noon on Dec. 24 and reopen at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 28. The Times will have an e-paper on Christmas Eve. The Weekend edition of The Times will be posted as an e-paper on Christmas Day, with normal mail delivery of the print edition. Check www.gainesvilletimes.com or The Times app for breaking news throughout the holidays.
