Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium hosted a mass COVID-19 vaccine site at the height of the pandemic. (Mercedes-Benz Stadium photo)
ATLANTA – COVID-19 tests and vaccines will continue to be offered for free in Georgia despite the ending of the federal public health emergency later this week, Dr. Kathleen Toomey, commissioner of the state Department of Public Health, said Tuesday.
The public health emergency that took first effect in early 2020 will end on Thursday. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is ending the emergency based on declining COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, Dr. Chris Rustin, the state agency’s deputy commissioner, told members of the Georgia Board of Public Health.
“That does not mean COVID-19 is over,” he said. “While cases are down sharply, we still see … 10 to 30 deaths per week in Georgia, mostly in the elderly and immunocompromised.”
Rustin said the end of the emergency will not affect either vaccines or testing, at least in the short run while supplies last. The public health department has enough test kits on hand to continue providing them free over the counter, he said.
There is still a network of testing kiosks around the state as well as several drive-through test sites, Rustin said.
Paxlovid, an antiviral pill used to treat COVID-19, will continue to be offered free in the immediate future, he said.
Rustin said the biggest impact the ending of the public health emergency will have is in data collection. As of Thursday, national reporting of COVID-19 deaths will cease, which will make it impossible to track deaths in Georgia, he said.
In other business at Tuesday’s Board of Public Health meeting, board members approved a resolution to sell $975,000 in general obligation bonds to finance maintenance, repairs, and renovations at public health labs in Decatur and Waycross.
The 3,000 Jynneos vaccines received so far are enough to vaccinate 1,500 people, agency spokeswoman Nancy Nydam said. A full vaccination requires two doses 28 days apart.
So far, 93 people with confirmed monkeypox cases have been identified in Georgia, all among men in metro Atlanta, Nydam said. Most are men who have sex with men.
The Jynneos monkeypox vaccines have been sent to health departments that have requested them and will also be distributed at two vaccine events, Nydam said.
Distribution at first will be focused on the metro region’s core counties of Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Cobb, and Clayton, she said.
The Jynneos vaccine was chosen because of its better safety profile, chief medical officer Dr. Alexander Millman said at the state board of public health meeting Tuesday.
Georgia is following the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines that suggest vaccinating high-risk individuals first, Nydam said.
“Vaccination may be recommended for people who are close personal contacts of people with monkeypox, individuals who may have been exposed to monkeypox, or people who have increased risk of being exposed to the virus such as lab workers,” she said.
Monkeypox is a viral disease that causes the skin to break out in pustules. The disease is usually mild but can be life threatening in some cases.
Nydam said monkeypox is not transmitted like COVID but rather through close, skin-to-skin contact with people who have monkeypox.
“While many of those affected in the current global outbreaks are gay, bisexual, or other men who have sex with men, anyone who has been in close contact with someone who has monkeypox can get the illness,” Nydam said.
The DPH announced the first case of monkeypox in Georgia June 1. According to CDC data posted this week, Georgia’s 96 cases put it fourth in the country after New York, California, and Illinois.
Georgia is expected to receive additional vaccines from the federal government later this summer “as production of the vaccine ramps up,” Nydam said.
In the meantime, Nydam said, people who think they may have been exposed to monkeypox should contact their health-care provider.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
The monkeypox virus (photo credit: CDC/Cynthia S. Goldsmith)
ATLANTA – The federal government is releasing monkeypox vaccine to Georgia in a phased approach.
The state will receive 5,943 doses of the Jynneos vaccine from the Strategic National Stockpile during the first two phases, Dr. Alexander Millman, chief medical officer for the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH), told the agency’s board Tuesday.
The DPH will focus that initial supply on two main groups: people who have “high-risk” exposure to a confirmed monkeypox case and others who have “certain risk factors that might make them likely to have had high-risk exposure” to the monkeypox virus.
The vaccine doses for Georgia must be carefully managed, especially because each person needs two shots a month apart, Millman said.
Millman explained that though there is another potential vaccine for monkeypox, the ACAM-2000 vaccine, the federal government is releasing the Jynneos vaccine because it is generally safer.
Georgia has identified more than 40 monkeypox cases so far, Dr. Cherie Drenzek, the state epidemiologist, said Tuesday.
Monkeypox is a viral disease that causes the skin to break out in pustules. The disease is usually mild but can be life threatening in some cases. The current outbreak is unusual because, as of last month, at least 3,400 cases had been identified in countries where monkeypox is not typically found.
Drenzek said monkeypox requires “very close person-to-person contact” for transmission, making it different from COVID or other respiratory diseases that are transmitted through the air.
She said the Georgia monkeypox cases have all been found in people who are from the “broad metro area of Atlanta,” though that interpretation may reflect a testing capability bias.
Drenzek said monkeypox in the current outbreak is primarily being found among men who have sex with men.
The greatest risk factor for monkeypox is close contact with someone else who had monkeypox lesions, she said.
The recent Georgia cases do not include histories of international travel, Drenzek said.
“This suggests…that there is established community spread,” she added.
The current global outbreak of monkeypox differs from prior known outbreaks in several ways, Drenzek said. Patients with monkeypox in the current global outbreak tend to have very few lesions – “even one to two,” she said.
“It just doesn’t look like what we knew monkeypox to look like in the past,” she said.
Drenzek said the DPH laboratory has been testing for monkeypox, and twonew commercial labs can now test for the disease as well. Other commercial labs in Georgia will soon be able to test for the disease she said.
Drenzek said the DPH has epidemiologists on call 24-7 to consult with clinicians about suspected cases of monkeypox at 1-866-PUB-HLTH.
In other news from Tuesday’s meeting, Drenzek told DPH board members a large number of cases of COVID-19 in Georgia are now attributable to the new BA.5 variant of the virus.
BA.5 currently accounts for 65% of all SARS-COVID circulating virus, according to the latest figures from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
COVID vaccines and boosters have played a key role in reducing severe COVID outcomes like hospitalization and death.
“These boosters are still holding very well against severe outcomes,” Drenzek said.
Drenzek said most hospitalizations and deaths have been among those who are not vaccinated, and the greatest numbers of those dying are more than 70 years old.
“It’s a matter of getting boosted now,” she said.
Drenzek suggested that soon the United States might approve a second booster for people under 50.
Nancy Nydam, communications director for the DPH, showed a new COVID vaccination ad campaign that encourages Georgians to get vaccinated.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – State agencies, local governments and local schools could not require Georgians to get a COVID-19 vaccination to receive government services or access government facilities under legislation that cleared the state House of Representatives Tuesday.
The bill passed the Republican-controlled House 99-67 along party lines.
Republicans argued Georgians have a right to make their own health-care decisions without government interference.
“Vaccination for COVID-19 is a personal decision to be made by an individual,” said Rep. Bonnie Rich, R-Suwanee, who chairs the House Republican Caucus. “This is an issue of liberty, of freedom to choose one’s own health care.”
Democrats countered that the right to choose not to be vaccinated stops when it threatens the health of others.
“If you contract the COVID virus, your family, friends, coworkers and classmates are all placed in jeopardy,” said Rep. Billy Mitchell, D-Stone Mountain, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.
Gov. Brian Kemp has opposed government-imposed vaccine mandates, including going to court to challenge federal mandates ordered by the Biden administration. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned a federal mandate in January requiring vaccinations for employees of businesses with at least 100 workers but left intact a vaccination mandate for health-care workers.
The bill the House passed Tuesday would not apply to health-care workers or to private businesses, Rich said.
Rep. Karla Drenner, D-Avondale Estates, said the legislation ignores the role vaccines have played historically in eradicating diseases including yellow fever, tuberculosis and measles.
“As the memory of epidemics fades, individual rights become more important than collective responsibility,” she said.
Rep. Mark Newton, R-Augusta, said the bill’s supporters acknowledge the success of the COVID-19 vaccine. In fact, many Republican lawmakers have received the shots, he said.
“It’s a fabulous vaccine, an amazing step forward that has changed the course of this illness,” Newton said, “[But] this bill is about requiring an adult to show papers … before they can access any government service. … You can be pro-vaccine and pro-liberty.”
The bill originated in the state Senate, which passed it early this month, also along party lines. Because of changes made by the House, the measure must now return to the Senate before gaining final passage.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium hosted a mass COVID-19 vaccine site this year.. (Mercedes-Benz Stadium photo)
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp and Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr are challenging a fourth Biden administration mandate related to the coronavirus pandemic.
A lawsuit filed Tuesday challenges an executive order issued late last month by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services requiring all staff associated with any programs funded through Head Start as well as certain of the program’s contractors and volunteers to wear masks and get vaccinated.
The mandate includes some programs administered by the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning.
“This is just the latest and most egregious in a growing list of overreaches by this president,” Kemp said. “As with our prior lawsuits against the administration’s unwarranted and inappropriate decisions, we will not rest in this fight to protect the rights and choices of Georgia’s families, especially when it comes to our youngest citizens.
“We will not allow these policies to invade our classrooms, teaching the wrong lessons about the role of government to growing minds.”
“The federal government is attempting to force Georgia families to choose between two equally problematic outcomes – either give up their right to make their own health-care decisions or risk their child’s education,” Carr added.
“This unlawful power grab is merely the latest example of a disturbing pattern emerging in this administration, and we will continue to fight back to protect our state and our citizens.”
All employees affected by the mandate must get vaccinated by Jan. 31. Also, Head Start children two years of age and older must begin wearing masks immediately.
Bernardine Futrell, director of the Office of Head Start, said the mandate not only will enhance safety but protect the program from disruptions that affect the program’s quality.
“Many programs have shared first-hand experience on how intermittent closures disrupt children’s opportunities for learning, socialization, nutrition, continuity and routine,” she said. “Program closures also impact the ability of Head Start families to work, which ultimately creates instability and adds to their stress.”
Kemp also has joined other Republican governors in suing the Biden administration over vaccine mandates imposed on federal contractors, health-care workers and businesses with 100 or more employees.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
