The number of new COVID-19 cases in Gilmer County has slowed since the most recent spike was seen in July, but cases are still being reported, the director of the North Georgia Health District told members of the Gilmer County Board of Health during a teleconference meeting held Tuesday, Sept. 8.
“There have been 774 (total) cases reported as of this morning and nine deaths. We sort of have a steady, but low increase of two to three cases every day. Of course, we would like to see zero, but at least we’re not having another surge at the moment like we did earlier in the course of the pandemic and then we had a second surge in July,” said health director Dr. Zachary Taylor during the meeting.
The Georgia Department of Public Health has introduced a new feature on its COVID-19 status report website (DPH.Georgia.gov/COVID-19-Daily-Status-Report), that shows the number of new cases reported in the last two weeks for each Georgia county. Each county’s total number of cases since the pandemic began is also included.
As of Tuesday, Sept. 15, 35 new cases had been reported in Gilmer during the past two weeks, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 784 and the number of deaths had increased from nine to 10, according to the website’s case tracker.
When asked by board of health member Curtis Kingsley about the probability of seeing a coronavirus vaccine any time soon, Taylor replied, “I think we can all be optimistic that we may have one by the end of the year or early in 2021.”
He added, “I don’t think it will be here by Nov. 3, although they have asked us to be ready for that. It would be highly unlikely. It really depends on how the trials work out and whether or not it’s found to be effective and safe. That’s the two big criteria they’re looking at.”
Krystal Sumner, Gilmer Health Department nurse manager, told board members the local health department staff has conducted a total of almost 5,000 coronavirus tests at local testing site the ETC Pavilion.
“In June, we did 461 tests at our test site. Due to the surge we had in July, that increased significantly to almost 1,600. We’ve been steady since then, doing 1,481 (tests) in August. At this time, we’re still testing three days a week and seeing roughly 80-90 patients a day at our test site,” she added.
Sumner said the number of people seeking services at the health department was down the past three months compared to the same timeframe last year, but those numbers aren’t too bad considering the continuing pandemic.
“I was a little bit surprised that they weren’t worse than what they actually are. We pretty much didn’t have services at all during the month of May and then much reduced the rest of the months. We’ve resumed services at the health department and I have to give praise to our staff. Not only are we testing, but we come back and see patients, as well. Our schedules have been almost full. We tackled the beginning of school doing tons of back to school immunizations and hearing, vision and dental. Now we’re focusing on flu,” she said.
“We also went to the Gilmer County Detention Center and tested 80 inmates onsite (for COVID-19). We’re still doing (tests for) first responders. Any first responder who needs tested can come to the health department at any time and we can test them,” Sumner added.
Drive-thru coronavirus testing is currently being offered in Gilmer County Monday, Wednesday and Friday, from 9-11 a.m., at the ETC Pavilion on Legion Road.
The test site schedule is subject to change from week to week, King noted.
For more details about getting tested, call 1-888-881-1474 or visit NGHD.org.