Photograph by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
On Thursday, Governor Kemp announced that any Georgian—symptomatic or asymptomatic—could schedule a coronavirus test. Here’s your Friday morning update:
• As of publication time, there have been 31,636 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Georgia. 1,351 people have died. 227,477 tests have been conducted. 5,877 of those tested were hospitalized at the time. [GA Dept. of Public Health]
• Governor Brian Kemp announced in a press conference today that anyone in Georgia—symptomatic or asymptomatic—can schedule a coronavirus test. Both the governor and state public health commissioner Dr. Kathleen Toomey are urging Georgians to get tested in order to better understand the spread of the virus and better implement contact tracing to control the spread. However, while the state finally has a surplus of tests, the labs processing those tests have been overwhelmed, as the AJC and WSB-TV found, delaying results for at least 4,000 people. Still, more widespread testing is a big step forward for the state. [Office of the Governor/AJC]
• The state is hiring temporary contact tracers as it prepares to ramp up that program. The position pays $15 per hour, and according to the job description, tracers will “either call or virtually monitor every contact of anyone diagnosed with COVID-19 to document a symptom check, refer them for testing according to established protocols, and provide them with instructions for quarantine.” View the description and apply here. (Also heads up to undergrad and graduate students—there’s a paid contact tracing internship.) [Georgia Dept. of Health]
• Children’s Hospital of Atlanta confirmed to WSB-TV that they are examining several cases of patients who “exhibited Kawasaki [disease]-like symptoms and inflammation.” While CHOA emphasized the cases are still rare, a recent outbreak of Kawasaki disease—a rare inflammatory disease of the blood vessels that usually affects children younger than five—in New York has researchers looking to see if there’s a link between the disease and COVID-19. Some children in New York that had COVID-19 also had Kawasaki-like symptoms. [WSB-TV]
• Speaking of kids, as the school year ends, parents are beginning to wonder what the fall will look like if students return to school. Among the concerns with children is that while they don’t often fall ill with COVID-19, they could still carry and spread the disease. (Add to the fact that kids are already germ magnets, as any parent will tell you.) The American Academy of Pediatrics has released some guidelines as administrators and officials begin planning the next academic year, among them, keeping students at a distance, which will be difficult in already overcrowded classrooms. The academy’s president suggested staggered start times as a possible solution, the AJC reports. Kids who are at high risk for COVID-19 (such as those with underlying health conditions) may need to continue distance learning or homeschooling. [AJC]
• Cobb and Douglas Counties are now releasing daily COVID-19 reports. Their website is fairly similar to the statewide reporting page, but offers more detailed information about the disease in those counties, such as a map of cases by zip code. Keep in mind that like the state’s reporting page, data inputting could be delayed and may not reflect all current cases. [CDPH]
• The Georgia Department of Labor processed 228,352 unemployment claims last week. While that’s down from the week previous, the total amount of claims during the past seven weeks amounts to 31 percent of Georgia’s workforce, compared to 21 percent of the national workforce, the AJC reports. Only two other states—Hawaii and Kentucky—have a higher percentage of unemployment rates. It’s possible that Georgia is processing claims faster than other states, or it could because so much of the state’s workforce is in “food and accommodation, retail and wholesale trade, and in the corporate sector,” according to one economist the AJC interviewed. Other economists had other theories: it’s because of more small workplaces, or more non-union jobs. [Georgia DOL/AJC]
