It looks as though the two-year COVID-19 pandemic has finally turned a corner in Georgia with new cases declining across the state. Gilmer County Board of Health members learned that’s also been true locally during their quarterly teleconference meeting last Tuesday.
Dr. Zachary Taylor, director of the six-county North Georgia Health District, said, like Georgia, new cases are decreasing drastically in Gilmer County about as fast as they rose with the Omicron surge.
“In the last two weeks, there have been 24 cases (in Gilmer County),” said Taylor. “The case rate per 10,000 for those two weeks was 76 per 100,000. With surges, it’s been over 100 per 100,000, which is considered high. We’re at about medium transmission rate right now. Our test positivity in the last two weeks is 5.7 percent, which is good. We’d like it below 5 percent, but it’s headed in that direction.”
Taylor said, to date, 47 percent of the county has received one dose of COVID vaccine, compared to 63 percent in Georgia. In Gilmer, 44 percent of the county has been fully vaccinated, compared to 55 percent statewide, he added.
“About 20 percent of the county population has received a booster dose, compared to 21 percent of Georgia overall,” Taylor said.
Taylor said, it looks like “we’re getting into a good place,” with COVID cases continuing to decline.
“Hopefully we’re going to enter a long period of time where our cases are very low, although there will probably still be some sporadic transmission going on,” he added.
Krystal Sumner, Gilmer Health Department nurse manager, said the local health department is still giving COVID vaccinations and booster doses. To date, the health department has given 20,404 total COVID vaccinations and 979 booster doses, she noted.
Recurring offsite vaccination efforts at Parkside Skilled Nursing Care and the Pilgrims Ellijay poultry plant have helped bring COVID vaccines to people beyond the health department’s physical location.
“At Parkside, two weeks ago, we vaccinated 19 residents and staff members with booster doses. Pilgrims continues to work with us, and we hosted a vaccination event for their night shift staff where we vaccinated over 30 workers. Most of those were first doses,” Sumner said.
MAKO Medical’s COVID testing site continues to operate in the Gilmer Civic Center parking lot Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 8 a.m.-2 p.m., Sumner said.
“We would like to thank Gilmer County Parks and Rec. for allowing MAKO to test in this location,” she added.
The health department is still doing rapid antigen COVID testing only for first responders and school and court employees from 7:30-9 a.m. Monday-Friday.
Also during the teleconference, Charlie Paris, Gilmer Commission Chairman and board of health member, was elected the health board’s chairman for 2022, while Curtis Kingsley was elected its vice chairman.