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Goronavirus Hotspots
COMMISSIONERS CONCERNED ABOUT NURSING HOMES AND HOMELESS
By Blake Aued and Rebecca McCarthy news@flagpole.com
Athens-Clarke County commissioners
pressed a Georgia Department of Public
Health official last week on whether it’s
accurately reporting COVID-19 deaths at
nursing homes.
WSB-TV reported Apr. 7 that 10
residents had died of COVID-19 at the
PruittHealth Grandview nursing home
in Athens. At the time, though, just nine
deaths had been reported in
Clarke County, and two weeks
after the report that number had
risen by just three.
A website created by
PruittHealth listed seven pos
itive tests and three pending
ones at Grandview and said one
person had recovered, but did
not say how many had died. The
first list of long-term care facil
ity deaths released by DPH on
Apr. 3 did not list any deaths at
Grandview, but the most recent
report on Apr. 10 listed eight.
“This issue with the 10 deaths
is really eroding credibility all
around,” Commissioner Jerry
NeSmith said at an Apr. 14 work
session, because people don’t
believe the official statistics.
It’s unclear how many, if any, of the
Grandview deaths have been included in
Clarke County’s statistics. “Some of that
has to do with lag of reporting in cases of
deaths in general,” Stephen Goggans, direc
tor of the East Central Health District in
Augusta, told commissioners. DPH is aware
of the problem and “folks are already work
ing on that,” he said.
There have been much larger outbreaks
at nursing homes in Albany, Macon and
Atlanta; and the problem is not confined to
Georgia—last week 17 bodies were found in
a New Jersey nursing home where coronavi-
rus has claimed 68 lives.
Residents of long-term care facilities are
especially vulnerable to COVID-19 because
of their age, tendency to have underlying
conditions and communal living conditions,
according to Goggans.
“This virus, we still believe, in most cases
is a mild virus,” he said. “In a small number
of cases, it is very severe, and obviously has
the potential to be fatal for folks, particu
larly who have chronic comorbid illnesses—
diabetes, heart disease, lung disease, things
such as that—and for those who are older,
possibly because those illnesses come with
age and possibly because the immune sys
tem doesn’t react the same.”
Classic symptoms are a fever, dry cough
and shortness of breath, but lately, in nurs
ing homes, doctors are seeing other symp
toms, such as confusion, vomiting, diarrhea
and loss of appetite, Goggans said.
Tests have been in short supply nation
wide, but now that results are available in
1-3 days, DPH is recommending that peo
ple with symptoms who are not part of a
high-risk group be tested. A second testing
site—in addition to the one at Piedmont
Athens Regional’s Oconee campus—has
been set up in Barrow County, but it will
move around to various hotspots. And DPH
is working with the Georgia Emergency
Management Agency and the UGA/Georgia
Regents University medical partnership to
use a mobile clinic for testing in areas where
people might not have access to transporta
tion to a testing site. “We’ll learn a lot more,
I think, about the real nature of the illness
in the population, as opposed to just the
folks who are selected for their higher risk,”
Goggans said.
Another potentially vulnerable popu
lation is the homeless. “I’m not aware of
any cases in the homeless population right
now,” Goggans said. “Obviously there have
been outbreaks in other parts of the coun
try, so that’s a population we watch very
closely.”
At a called meeting prior to the work
session, the commission voted unanimously
to split $150,000 from the county’s $3
million Prosperity Package among four
agencies—Advantage Behavioral Health
Systems, the Athens Area Homeless Shelter,
Bigger Vision and Family Promise. That
money will pay to operate a homeless day
services center and provide hotel rooms for
10 individuals and 10 families, plus other
emergency shelter and cleaning supplies for
65 indigent households, food for at least 85
people and personal protective equipment
for staff and volunteers. Manager Blaine
Williams said he is hopeful the Federal
Emergency Management Agency will reim
burse those costs.
Forthcoming federal Community
Development Block Grants could also be
spent on homeless services, food assis
tance, PPE, cleaning supplies, transpor
tation and other “things that are related
to assisting people in responding to the
pandemic,” Williams said. Officials also
discussed using the Classic Center Pavillion
as a place where people who are currently
living in outdoor camps can safely stay in a
more hygienic environment, with portable
restrooms, trash receptacles and handwash
ing stations.
Prior to the meeting, some activists
wrote to Mayor Kelly Girtz and commis
sioners requesting a town hall meeting with
community members and nonprofits before
deciding how to spend the remainder of
the Prosperity Package. Girtz said a portal
will open on the county website this week
for nonprofits to apply for funding. ACC
attorneys are also working with the City of
Winterville to create a joint development
authority that can legally distribute funds
to local businesses.
In one final bit of business, the commis
sion approved a measure allowing bars and
restaurants to temporarily sell growlers of
draft beer. “The big bottles are coming your
way,” Girtz said. [Blake Aued]
District 8 Debate Recap
An exchange on environmental issues
during an Athens for Everyone online
debate highlighted some of the differences
among the three candidates vying to repre
sent Commission District 8 on the Eastside:
retired educator Carol Myers, couples ther
apist Andrea Farnham and lawyer Kamau
Hull.
“This is my issue,” Myers said. “This is
one of the reasons I’m running for commis
sioner.” Myers said she was among those
who pushed to create an office of sustain
ability in the county government, pass a
resolution committing to 100% renewable
energy and put $16 million for that cause in
SPLOST 2020.
“To be very frank, when white people
talk about renewable energy and saving the
environment and all that stuff, it makes me
want to strangle somebody,” Farnham said.
“It lacks a racial justice element to it.” She
said she supports a Green New Deal, but
environmental policy has to be paired with
labor policies to redistribute wealth. If not,
it’s “super racist” and “cleans up Athens for
white people to enjoy while leaving poor
and minority communities behind.”
Hull called the renewable energy com
mitment “a great move.” But there is no
accountability to ensure the money will cir
culate within the community, he said. New
development should include green benefits
as well as community programs. “If we do
that [convert to 100% renewable energy]
and we still have the same racial and pov
erty issues, we haven’t really accomplished
much,” he said.
Green energy is a social jus
tice issue, Myers said. Lower
income residents have a larger
energy burden—they pay a
bigger share of their income on
utilities—and green energy will
create jobs prioritizing margin
alized communities, she said. “If
I’m commissioner, you can call
on me to make sure this is get
ting done,” she said.
Accountability measures
should have been put into place
before the resolution was passed,
Hull responded.
The candidates also discussed
white privilege, affordable
housing, unions, reparations
and other issues. View the
full debate at facebook.com/
AthensForEveryone. Debates for District
4 and District 6 are also available, and a
debate between District 10 incumbent Mike
Hamby and challenger Knowa Johnson will
stream at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Apr. 22.
[BA]
Gonzalez Urges Kemp
to Appoint DA
Former state Rep. Deborah Gonzalez,
a candidate for Western Circuit District
Attorney, has hired an attorney to pressure
THIS MSBIIH VSILB
by TOM TOMORROW
I CAN'T BELIEVE THESE GOVERNORS TELLING US
TO STAY IN OUR HOMES. 1
IT'S AS If IN THE ABSENCE OF A
COORDINATED FEDERAL RESPONSE,
THEY'RE DOING THEIR BEST TO
I PROTECT THEIR CITIZENS. 1
DON'T THEY UNDERSTAND THAT PRESIDENT TRUMP HAS
TOTAL AUTHORITY?
HE SEEMS TO THINK So! AND H£‘S
EXERCISING IT BY WASHING HIS HANDS
OF ALL RESPONSIBILITY!
II
I MEAN, ATI
LEAST HE'S
THIS ISN'T SOME FILTHY HELLHOLE LIKE NEW YORK
CITY! THINGS ARE DIFFERENT HERE! THE CORONA-
VIRUS WON'T DECIMATE MY COMMUNITY!
SAYS THE MAN WHO VOTED FOR THE
coromavirus -dec imatimg -my-community
PARTY!
PEOPLE DIE FROM ALL KINDS of THINGS! 45,000
PEOPLE A YEAR DIE FROM AUTOMOBILE ACCIDENTS
BUT WE DON'T SHUT THE COUNTRY DOWN!
RIGHT? AS WE ALL KNOW, AUTOMOBILE
ACCIDENTS ARE HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS
AND CAN SPREAD THROUGH THE POP-
i ULATION AT AN EXPONENTIAL RATE!
IF THE GOVERNORS WON'T LISTEN TO US—WE'LL KEEP
HOLDING RALLIES UNTIL THEY Do! WE REPRESENT
THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE!
: YES, THERE MUST BE HUNDREDS of
YOU, IN A NATION IN WHICH MILLIONS
OF OTHERS ARE VOLUNTARILY ENDURING
ISOLATION FOR THE GOOD OF SOCIETY!
I DEMAND MY CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT NOT TO BE
INCONVENIENCED BY ANYTHING, EVER! I HAVE
ERRANDS TO RUN, DAMMIT!
JS
That’s the way we became the Commission Bunch.
4
FLAGPOLE.COM | APRIL 22, 2020
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