Georgia Health Experts Urge Caution As Coronavirus Spikes Ahead Of July 4

From the Georgia Recorder:

By Jill Nolin

July 2, 2020

Georgia health experts have seen a troubling new rise in COVID-19 patients as coronavirus rapidly spread again, with patients nearly doubling in the last week. Georgia’s health care systems could feel the strain in the coming weeks.

Planning to gather with lots of family and friends this July Fourth weekend? Public health experts want you to rethink those plans as COVID-19 case numbers climb in Georgia.

“There’s a reason why we need to go to the grocery store. There’s a reason why we may need to go to the hardware store. But there isn’t a reason to have a large barbecue in our backyard,” Dr. Jonathan Lewin, CEO of Emory Healthcare and executive vice president for health affairs, told reporters this week. “And those are many of the things that have been causing the current problems.”

Lewin said Emory has seen a troubling rise in COVID-19 patients as coronavirus rapidly spreads again, with patients nearly doubling in the last week. He said he is worried about the potential strain Georgia’s health care systems could feel in the coming weeks.

Statewide, Georgia has seen record daily increases, with cases jumping nearly 3,500 to nearly 88,000 Thursday.

The increase in cases nationally and here in the South can be traced back to Memorial Day weekend, said Dr. Carlos del Rio, who is executive associate dean of Emory University School of Medicine at Grady Health system.

That’s why del Rio says he is especially concerned about what people chose to do this holiday weekend, when community fireworks displays and cookouts would normally be on the itinerary.

“During this fourth of July weekend, there are certain things we should do and there are certain things we shouldn’t do,” said del Rio, who is a professor of medicine, epidemiology and global health. “And I think going out with lots of people, large gatherings to watch the fireworks is probably not a good thing.

“We really need to remember that this is a pandemic happening right now,” he said.

In a call with reporters, the pair urged the public to continue taking the precautions people have likely grown weary of after four months of increased hand washing, practicing social distance and wearing a face mask.

And Lewin said he hopes elected and business leaders will do all they can to ensure people don masks. He said the infection rate among the Emory workforce dropped to nearly zero when Emory required – rather than encouraged – masks for all staff in April. Studies have shown that the more people wear masks, the lower the transmission.

Savannah Mayor Van Johnson has mandated face masks in public in response to a local spike in cases, but Gov. Brian Kemp has tried to appeal to people’s sense of civic duty – and their passion for college football – to win over those who shun face coverings. The governor has not said whether he will challenge Johnson’s local mandate, which goes further than his state-level approach.

Kemp and Dr. Kathleen Toomey, who is the state’s commissioner of public health, just wrapped up a two-day “Wear a Mask” fly-around tour that took them from Brunswick to Dalton. Kemp has also extended his ban on gatherings of more than 50 people, unless those present are able to maintain a six-foot buffer from others.

“The closer we can get to universal masking, the better off we’ll be as a society, the better off we’ll be as a city, as a state, as a country,” Lewin said. “The last thing I want to see is an increase in lockdown, is having to go back to where we were in March and April.

“Whatever our elected leaders can do to increase the compliance with masking – whatever our elected leaders can do to decrease the partisanship that’s currently seen around masking – the more likely we are to get through this without seeing more economic damage,” he said.

This story was originally published by the Georgia Recorder. For more stories from the Georgia Recorder, visit GeorgiaRecorder.com.