ATLANTA – The state officials overseeing Georgia’s COVID-19 response are preparing to convert a portion of the Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC) into a hospital.
Gov. Brian Kemp announced Sunday that the state has entered into a contract with PAE, a Virginia-based defense and government services contractor, to build a 200-bed alternative care at the GWCC to house hospitalized coronavirus patients if needed. The facility will be ready within one week, in time to meet the projected peak for COVID-19 in Georgia of April 26.
“Across Georgia, we have partnered with existing health-care infrastructure to greatly expand our surge capacity,” Kemp said Sunday in a prepared statement. “Now, we have a dedicated team building out a temporary facility at the Georgia World Congress Center for potential COVID-19 patient surge. We are working around the clock to prepare for future needs and ensure the health and well-being of our state.”
State agencies involved in the project include the state Department of Public Health, Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency, the Department of Community Health and the Georgia National Guard. Nearby Grady Memorial Hospital will be assisting in the effort.
The GWCC facility will be for those with mild to moderate symptoms of COVID-19, non-ICU patients without the need for a ventilator.
The governor’s announcement came as the number of Georgians who have tested positive for coronavirus rose to 12,452. As of noon Sunday, 433 patients had died from the virus.
ATLANTA – With ridership down significantly due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Xpress commuter bus system will be reducing service from metro Atlanta’s outer counties into and out of the city effective Monday.
The good news is that rides will be free throughout the system. Officials at the State Road and Tollway Authority (SRTA), which operates Xpress buses, are looking to avoid potential crowding at fareboxes that would violate social distancing guidelines.
“As more of our customers shelter in place and work remotely, we are further reducing routes with diminished ridership,” SRTA Executive Director Chris Tomlinson said. “We will continue to provide services at no cost to our customers who still rely on public transit, as well as implement the required preventative measures outlined by Governor Kemp, the [federal] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and [Georgia] Department of Public Health to facilitate their safe commute.”
Routes affected by reduced service will include connections between Cumming, downtown Atlanta and the Perimeter Center and various routes within Gwinnett County – including links to the Mall of Georgia and Sugarloaf- and to from Gwinnett to points outside of the county, including the Chamblee and Lindbergh Center MARTA stations and downtown and Midtown Atlanta.
Service also will be reduced on Xpress routes connecting Conyers with downtown and Midtown Atlanta, and with the Perimeter Center. South of the city, service reductions will occur on the Stockbridge-to-Midtown and McDonough-to-downtown routes.
ATLANTA – The sacrifices America’s doctors, nurses and other first responders are making to care for coronavirus patients are receiving an outpouring of praise and thanks.
But another group of workers risking their health to perform their duties during the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t getting nearly as much attention: the nation’s garbage collectors.
“We handle a lot of items that, if not handled properly, could cause injury or illness,” said Jason Zepp, head of the Georgia chapter of the National Waste & Recycling Association. “[But] we have a low rate of illness and injury because we do a good job issuing the proper protective equipment.”
Sanitation is considered an essential public health service. Thus, garbage collection is among the industries that has not been sidelined by COVID-19.
Although garbage and recyclables collection trucks have continued to ply the streets during the coronavirus crisis, workers have been taking extra precautions.
“We’re sensitive to adding more PPE [personal protective equipment], making sure we have plenty of sanitizers and gloves and sanitizing the truck at the end of the day,” Zepp said.
Zepp said there also are extra precautions customers can take to help sanitation workers keep the streets clean during the pandemic.
He suggested customers take note of flyers, emails and other types of notifications from sanitation companies of changes in service that might be necessitated by the pandemic. Some companies, for example, are not accepting yard waste to save more room for the additional household garbage people are generating while sheltering in place and to keep workers safe.
Even in normal times, collecting garbage is considered hazardous duty. It’s the fifth-most dangerous job in America, behind only logging, commercial fishing, flying aircraft and installing roofs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“We tell customers to try to keep everything inside the cart so our men and women don’t have to pick up loose trash or debris that might have fallen,” Zepp said.
Georgia Democratic Party leaders are pushing for state election officials to send absentee ballots to every voter and pay for postage ahead of the delayed June 9 primary as concerns over coronavirus remain strong.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office has begun mailing absentee ballot request forms to Georgia’s roughly 7 million registered voters for the June 9 presidential and general primaries, which were previously scheduled for May 19. Once those forms are completed and returned, state officials will then send voters their absentee ballots.
That process is not proactive enough, say Georgia Democratic leaders. They are calling for Raffensperger to skip mailing request forms and go straight to sending voters their absentee ballots.
They are also urging Raffensperger and state officials to provide prepaid postage with the absentee ballots, rather than leave it up to voters to buy a stamp.
Those steps would help boost participation, confidence and safer voting practices while coronavirus continues posing severe health risks, said state Sen. Nikema Williams, who chairs the Democratic Party of Georgia.
“We just can’t ask voters to choose between their democracy and their health,” Williams, D-Atlanta, said in a phone conference Friday. “It is imperative that we do both.”
Williams and the party’s voter protection director, Saira Draper, also called for election officials to send out absentee ballots to all voters through the rest of this year, one of the busiest election seasons in Georgia history with local, state, congressional and both U.S. Senate seats up for grabs.
Delaying the primaries now set for June 9 will not be enough to ensure voter safety and integrity, Williams said, since it is unclear when the highly infectious virus will cease to pose a major public health concern.
“We support reforms, not continued delays that will be confusing to Georgia voters,” Williams said Friday.
Raffensperger has twice postponed Georgia’s presidential primary, which was originally scheduled for March 24. On Thursday, he announced a three-week delay of both the presidential primary and state and local primary elections that had been set for May 19. Every primary contest is now scheduled for June 9.
Raffensperger, a Republican, made the move amid mounting pressure from top Republican leaders in the state like House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, and all 11 of Georgia’s Republican congressional members, who said the May 19 date could imperil poll workers and voters.
The secretary of state’s decision also came amid reports that many poll workers, who tend to be older adults most at risk from the virus, might not show up on Election Day to protect themselves from infection.
“This decision allows our office and county election officials to continue to put in place contingency plans to ensure that voting can be safe and secure when in-person voting begins and prioritizes the health and safety of voters, county election officials and poll workers,” Raffensperger said in a statement Thursday.
ATLANTA – A major obstacle to the era of online instruction the coronavirus pandemic has forced on Georgia schools is that some students, particularly in rural communities, don’t have access to the internet at home.
The state Department of Community Affairs is stepping up to that challenge by providing information on public WiFi locations across the state.
Many of the public WiFi locations are around the outsides of public buildings including libraries. While the buildings are closed because of the virus, their WiFi signal carries outside their doors.
Students must bring their own devices such as laptops, tablets and cellphones. Also, students are cautioned to follow the social distancing guidelines in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Expanding broadband connectivity in rural Georgia has been a goal of the General Assembly during recent legislative sessions. The state House of Representatives passed a broadband bill last month shortly before suspending the session indefinitely because of coronavirus.
The measure, which the Senate is expected to consider when lawmakers return to the Capitol, would reduce the fees Georgia’s electric membership corporations (EMCs) charge to let telecom providers use their utility poles to extend broadband service into unserved or underserved areas of the state. Telecom executives have complained current pole attachment rates are so high that running broadband into rural communities isn’t worth the investment.
