Masks back on the table as cases rise
♦ Some cities and employers are taking action to combat COVID-19.
Hospitals treating more patients are bracing for even more, and in some parts of Georgia mask requirements are returning. The push for getting vaccinations also has increased with more workers facing mandatory shots.
The unsettling rise in COVID cases has prompted a flurry of virus-related activity this week across the state and the nation.
Take Central Georgia.
A Public Health spokesman there sent out data Monday that said his 13-county district has seen a major increase in COVID cases. The incidence rate of COVID-19 for district residents has hit 125 per 100,000 population, about four times the number from the previous two-week period. Emergency room visits and hospitalizations are climbing, too.
Mask wearing “has never been big around here,’’ said Michael Hokanson of the North Central Health District.
The 13 counties have lower vaccination rates than the statewide average of 40%, he added.
Locally, Gordon County had reported just under 100 new COVID-19 cases over a two week period, as of Wednesday.
Approximately 29% of Gordon County is currently fully vaccinated against the virus.
At Warner Robins-based Houston Healthcare, the number of hospital patients with COVID has quadrupled, going from seven at the start of July to 31 as of Tuesday.
Kevin Rowley, a spokesman for Houston, said that “like all health care providers, we are monitoring the situation very closely.”
Nearby, Atrium Health Navicent, based in Macon, has seen a hospital patient increase similar to those during past COVID surges.
This group of patients, though, is tending to be more middleaged and younger, compared with previous virus waves.
“The vast majority of them are unvaccinated,’’ said Dr. Patrice Walker, chief medical officer at Atrium Health Navicent.
The rising numbers coincide with concerns about sufficient staffing, Walker added. “We have the same staffing limitations. It’s not just nurses,’’ she said, citing respiratory therapists as a critical need.
The parent company of Navicent and Floyd Medical Center, Atrium Health, has decided it will require more than 70,000 employees across 40 hospitals to be vaccinated by Oct. 31, joining a growing list of health systems with that requirement.
The Macon-Bibb School District, meanwhile, decided this week to require masks for all students and staff, as school is ready to begin.
Dr. Jennifer Hoffman, the infectious disease specialist at Coliseum Health System, told the Macon Telegraph that she applauds the move.
Masks back on in
Savannah
To prevent further spread of the highly contagious Delta variant, the CDC updated its mask guidance Tuesday to recommend that fully vaccinated
people wear masks indoors when in areas with “substantial” and “high” transmission of COVID. That includes nearly two-thirds of all U.S. counties – and almost all of Georgia.
“In recent days I have seen new scientific data from recent outbreak investigations showing that the Delta variant behaves uniquely differently from past strains of the virus that cause COVID-19,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Tuesday.
The CDC is also now recommending universal indoor masking for all teachers, staffers, students and visitors inside schools from kindergarten to 12th grade, regardless of vaccination status. That follows a recent recommendation from the American Academy of Pediatrics that anyone over the age of 2 be required to wear a mask in school.
Dr. Colleen Kraft, associate chief medical officer at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, said Tuesday that the new mask guidance makes sense.
“We just really need to stop transmission, and vaccinations certainly stop transmission, but with a low vaccine uptake and a lot of (vaccine) hesitancy, we need to go back to things that work,” she told reporters.
The masking requirement already is playing out in some Georgia schools districts, which are preparing for students’ arrival next week.
In the Athens area, all Clarke County students, regardless of vaccination status or grade, will be required to wear masks effective immediately, the Clarke system announced Monday.
In coastal Chatham County, the local school district did what its school superintendent called a “pandemic pivot.’’
Saying the goal is to teach all students in person five days a week, district Superintendent Ann Levett said Tuesday morning that all staff and students will be required to wear masks inside school buildings, the Savannah
Morning News reported.
The City of Savannah, meanwhile, reinstated its mask mandate Monday. It went into effect at 8 a.m. that day and is set to expire Aug. 25.
The order requires everyone, regardless of vaccination status, to wear a mask indoors when not with immediate family, Savannah Mayor Van Johnson said.
More people heading
to hospitals
Elsewhere in Georgia, hospitals are seeing a steady flow of virus patients.
Northeast Georgia Health System, based in Gainesville, said Monday that it was treating 53 COVID-19 patients as of that day, 23 more than a week earlier.
Phoebe Putney Health System in Albany said it has seen “a marked increase in COVID-19 admissions recently. “In Albany, we admitted a total of 12 patients for treatment of COVID over the last two days,’’ said spokesman Ben Roberts. “We’ve had 26 admissions over the last week, compared to just 32 total COVID-19 admissions for the entire month of June.’’
Both Northeast Georgia and Phoebe Putney treated a flood of patients during previous surges.
Also this week, the American Medical Association, the American Nurses Association and dozens of other groups representing medical professionals called for COVID-19 vaccines to be mandatory for health care workers, citing the rise of the Delta variant.
In a joint statement, groups including the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Nursing, the American College of Surgeons and dozens of others urged health care employers to require COVID-19 vaccinations for their workers.