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Georgia Coronavirus Updates: Election Board Approves Absentee Ballot Drop Boxes
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Georgia counties now have the ability to set up secure drop boxes for voters to turn in absentee ballots as elections officials scramble to make the June 9 primary safe and accessible because of the coronavirus.
As of 7 p.m. Thursday, April 16, there are more than 16,000 reported COVID-19 cases in Georgia, and about 20% of those have resulted in hospitalizations. At least 617 people, or 3.77% of those people with confirmed cases, have died.
Here is the latest coronavirus news from Georgia for Thursday, April 16, 2020.
Absentee Ballot Drop Boxes Allowed For June 9 Primary
The Georgia State Election Board passed an emergency rule Wednesday allowing county officials to set up secure drop boxes for voters to return their absentee ballots as local administrators grapple with running an election during a global health crisis.
This could give some of Georgia's 7 million-plus eligible voters another way to return their ballots for the June 9 primary election only, as counties begin to close polling places because of staff shortages and try to implement social distancing at the polls.
County registrars are now authorized to set up one or more secure locations on government-owned property where voters can drop their completed absentee ballot any time before the polls close at 7 p.m. on Election Day.
Georgia Expands COVID-19 Testing Criteria
Effective immediately, all Georgians can get tested for COVID-19 if they are symptomatic, the state health department said Wednesday.
Gov. Brian Kemp announced expanded testing criteria earlier this week, and criticized the state's lag in testing. Less than 65,000 tests have been performed in Georgia, where more than 10 million people live.
"Despite our partnerships and undeniable progress, our testing numbers in Georgia continue to lag," he said. "We need to be firing on all cylinders to prepare for the days and weeks ahead."
Meanwhile, regional health departments are still struggling to meet present needs for coronavirus testing and the Georgia National Guard is preparing to help perform tests across the state.
Death toll tops 500
The Georgia Department of Public Health reports 617 confirmed deaths in Georgia from the coronavirus, but that number is much higher.
At least 88 people have died in Dougherty County, where more than one in every hundred residents has tested positive for COVID-19.
By comparison, 66 reported deaths are in Fulton County, the state’s most populous, where infection rates are eight times lower.
More long-term care facilities hit
"Right now, there are at least 80 longterm care facilities, including nursing homes, assisted living facilities, personal care homes, hospice, and similar community living facilities, with COVID-19 cases," Kemp said during a news conference Monday. "We’re working to verify new information on additional facilities."
But data released by the state Tuesday show at least 138 facilities have cases, though those numbers are lagging behind reports on the ground.
From the AJC:
Officials on Tuesday released a report on long-term care facilities that was riddled with errors and omissions. The report documented outbreaks in 138 facilities, up from 80 last week. But it made no mention of Summerset Assisted Living in Fulton County, for instance, even though two-thirds of residents and staff there have tested positive for the virus.
The report said at least 89 residents of long-term care facilities have died of COVID-19. But some of the facilities themselves have recorded significantly more deaths than the report captured.
Update from Albany
The Phoebe Health system in Albany said in a statement Wednesday they had the lowest number of hospitalizations in almost a month.
1,059 patients have recovered, something the hospital defines as someone who tested positive and self-isolated at home for at least 14 days from the testing date, or a hospital inpatient who has been discharged for at least 10 days.
“Yesterday, we treated 15 COVID patients in our main emergency center who needed hospitalization,” Phoebe Putney Health System CEO Scott Steiner said. “While that is a significant number, it is the lowest we’ve seen in almost a month, and that is great news. Our number of recovered patients also now tops 1,000. We celebrate every positive milestone in our community’s battle against COVID-19, but we cannot let our guard down. We know how easily this virus spreads, and we must remain vigilant to ensure our daily number of new cases continues to decline. Lives truly depend on people throughout southwest Georgia continuing to take this threat seriously.”
Georgia boosts health care staffing
Jackson Healthcare is bringing close to 600 additional healthcare professionals to hospital systems around the state, Kemp announced Tuesday.
“We are committed to giving our heroic healthcare workers the staffing support necessary to win this fight,” he said. “It has been inspiring to witness the work being done by those on the front lines to combat COVID-19, and I join my fellow Georgians in expressing tremendous gratitude for their service. I want to thank our partners with the Department of Community Health for assisting us in this critical initiative.”
65 of those have already been working in the Phoebe Health system in Albany, with eight more coming soon to the main campus.
Several hundred are also coming to the Phoebe North campus, including one of four temporary medical units being built.
Other hospitals adding temporary capacity
Those other units are going to hospitals in Rome, Gainesville and Macon, where GPB’s Grant Blankenship reports on construction.
Spencer Hawkins of Macon-Bibb County Emergency Management said 24 beds in six pods of prefabricated buildings will be erected in a parking lot adjacent to the Medical Center at Navicent Health.
“They’ll start installation of the units late in the month, sometime between the 23 and 27th with a plan to have that open around the first of May.”
If construction goes as scheduled, that should make the overflow spaces ready at about the same time the University of Washington predicts the peak of Georgia coronavirus infections.
Georgia’s peak will likely be later
The University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation on Monday updated its projection to show Georgia's peak hospital use will be May 1 and peak deaths in Georgia will be May 3, with a shortage of ICU beds coming by the end of the week.
But Kemp said across the state, the hospital infrastructure is not yet full, and over the weekend his office announced a 200-bed surge capacity hospital is being constructed at the Georgia World Congress Center.
"As of today, we have 2,617 emergency room beds, 929 critical care beds, and nearly 6,000 general inpatient beds available statewide," he said Monday. "By the end of this week, we hope to provide this bed capacity update daily to the public."
On Wednesday, the state had nearly 5,550 general inpatient beds, 879 critical care beds and 2,628 emergency room beds.
Dearth of data
That new data point about hospital capacity underscores just how little we know about the virus’ spread, who is impacted the most and how different parts of the state are responding.
While some hospitals (like Phoebe Putney in Albany) are proactively forthcoming with statistics on cases and deaths, others have been radio silent.
The Georgia Department of Public Health is missing racial demographic data for about half of the state's 15,000 positive cases, and just recently added graphs and charts about daily case rates. At least 299 of the 576 reported deaths are black Georgians.
Dr. Kathleen Toomey, the state's public health commissioner, said her department was focused on making sure that information proactively comes in during future tests.
"Right now our priority is not retrospective but prospective, ensuring that we proactively test to ensure we get fully filled out demographic information," she said. "I think for our staff to go back and find 4,000 individuals and ask them that information is less valuable now."
Georgia's public health emergency runs through May 13 at the moment, and a belated stay-at-home order goes through April 30.
While the governor would not speculate about future decisions to extend these orders or when to re-open the state, he said there was hope in recent numbers.
Mask on
Kemp also announced an executive order suspending enforcement of the state's anti-mask law, originally designed to prevent Ku Klux Klan members from gathering in public, as a way to ensure people can comply with public health recommendations to cover their face in public without fear of prosecution.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends cloth face masks for people who have to go out in public.
“It is critical to emphasize that maintaining 6-feet social distancing remains important to slowing the spread of the virus. CDC is additionally advising the use of simple cloth face coverings to slow the spread of the virus and help people who may have the virus and do not know it from transmitting it to others. Cloth face coverings fashioned from household items or made at home from common materials at low cost can be used as an additional, voluntary public health measure.”
UPDATED MAP: Track Coronavirus By Population Across Georgia
IRS launches new app for stimulus money
The IRS will launch an app this week for people to connect with and track their stimulus payments from the $2.2 trillion deal signed by President Donald Trump late last month, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin said Friday.
The Georgia Department of Labor will also begin distributing federal unemployment funds according to the CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security).
A weekly $600 supplement will be sent to any individual eligible for any portion of the Unemployment Compensation programs – state and federal. The GDOL will begin sending this additional payment to those currently receiving state unemployment benefits beginning next week. This supplement will be an additional payment to regular weekly state unemployment benefits and will include all eligible weeks beginning with the week ending April 4.
The supplement amount is contingent upon any deductions required by the state or federal government.
MORE: Georgia Elections Officials Prep for ‘Unprecedented’ Primary As Coronavirus Looms
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