Despite COVID-19, University of Georgia, Georgia Southern, Georgia Tech Thirsty for In-Person Classes. COVID-19 infections leap again at University of Georgia. ATLANTA (AP) — Coronavirus infections continue to spread at the University of Georgia, with the school reporting more than 1,400 new cases of COVID-19 in the past week.
The numbers, reported Wednesday, push the 39,000-student university close to 2,600 total infections in the past four weeks, according to the school’s data. Although Georgia College & State University still has recorded a larger share of infections among its campus community since Aug. 1, UGA’s outbreak is now the fastest growing among universities in the state that are publicly reporting numbers.
The surge is clearly reflected in the figures for the broader Athens-Clarke County community. Clarke County is 23rd among U.S. counties for the most new cases per capita in the past 14 days, according to figures kept by The Associated Press, although the university says some tests may come from students and employees elsewhere. The growing outbreak at the university comes as case numbers across Georgia continue to fall.
Dr. Article_94f90616-eee8-11ea-8974-6b992d23e78e. Tracking Coronavirus Cases at U.S. Colleges and Universities. UGA faculty told not to change class format if students test positive for COVID-19. University of Georgia faculty were instructed not to alter the location or format of their class if a student tests positive for COVID-19, according to an email obtained by The Red & Black on Sept. 2.
The email, sent on behalf of Provost Jack Hu and Vice President of Instruction Rahul Shrivastav, emphasized that if faculty are made aware that one of their students has tested positive for COVID-19, they should not report it to the rest of the students in the class. “Faculty should not notify others about the positive test as it may violate student privacy, even when a name is not specified in these messages,” the email said. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, individuals who are exposed to people with COVID-19 should be “quickly identified and quarantined.”
Under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), sensitive health information of a specific student cannot be publicized. UGA Had at Least 821 COVID-19 Cases Last Week. The number of COVID-19 positives at UGA has grown more than tenfold since the university started testing students, faculty and staff in mid-August.
UGA reported 821 positive tests for the week of Aug. 24-30, including 798 students and 23 employees. That’s up from from 189 the week of Aug. 17-23 and 64 the week of Aug. 10-16. It’s not because UGA is doing more testing, either. The rate of positive tests conducted on campus has gone from 0.38% to 2.35% to 5.36%.
The numbers are most likely low. UGA health faculty on COVID-19 policies and testing: Campus is in ‘grave danger' Everyone in the state (including us) wants UGA to reopen.
But, paramount above all else is the imperative to reopen in a safe and responsible manner; lives, literally, depend on it. We regretfully conclude that UGA’s plan for testing, tracing, and data-sharing fails miserably in terms of adequacy for surveillance or management, action, and transparency. Dr. Over 300 UGA Professors Say In-Person Classes Are 'Unwise' More than 300 University of Georgia faculty members signed a column published by the Red & Black student newspaper today criticizing UGA’s plans for reopening.
“The resumption of in-person instruction at the University of Georgia as currently planned is unwise,” according to the column. White House warns of ‘widespread and expanding’ COVID-19 spread in Georgia. Georgia also needs to ramp up testing and contact tracing statewide, the report said, and testing and infection control measures need to be expanded in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution obtained the White House Coronavirus Task Force recommendations for Georgia, dated Aug. 9, from a source. Dr. Melanie Thompson, principal investigator of the AIDS Research Consortium of Atlanta, said it is frustrating that the report is only seeing the light of day because of a leak. “These are public health data and they should be publicly available,” she said. Most states require masks. Athens Hospitals Are Overtaxed, Doctors and Nurses Say. The COVID-19 situation in Athens is not improving.
Clarke County continues to see a surge in cases, additional deaths and a sustained critical care bed shortage. To date, Athens has had 2,166 confirmed cases since mid-March, with 143 hospitalizations and 19 deaths attributed to COVID-19. It took four months to reach 1,000 positive tests, but less than four weeks to double that number. The positive percentage—which health experts say should be at or below 5% to control the virus—continues to average about 12% statewide. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp Has Bungled the Pandemic. Kemp, like Trump, has recently started to encourage mask usage while still aggressively opposing any kind of enforceable mask rule.
The problem with that approach, according to public-health experts, is that it sows confusion, making it more difficult for people to feel confident in their safety. The state’s own messaging has at times been misleading in other ways. On its Department of Public Health website, the state spent months backdating cases to a patient’s first symptoms, which meant that the most recent two weeks of the graph always looked as if the pandemic was in marked decline. ?next_url= Georgia School Reopening Photo Worse Than It Appears. Behind a viral photo of a crowded hallway at a high school in Georgia, a potentially dire situation is brewing.
Students, teachers, and parents fear the Paulding County school’s rushed reopening plans may be spiraling out of control just two days after students — who said they were told they could face expulsion for remaining home — returned to class despite reports of positive coronavirus cases among students and staff. North Paulding High School, about an hour outside Atlanta, reopened Monday despite an outbreak among members of its high school football team, many of whom, a Facebook video shows, worked out together in a crowded indoor gym last week as part of a weightlifting fundraiser. How a Pandemic Might Play Out Under Trump. The president-elect is hardly immune.
Before, during, and since the election, Trump has had a strained relationship with facts, having repeatedly and reflexively lied about matters both large and small. He has reportedly failed to seek advice from the State Department before calling foreign leaders. He is avoiding most of his daily intelligence briefings, despite his lack of prior military or political experience—“I’m, like, a smart person," he recently said. Trump: Coronavirus is “under control" President Trump said in an interview with “Axios on HBO” that he thinks the coronavirus is as well-controlled in the U.S. as it can be, despite dramatic surges in new infections over the course of the summer and more than 150,000 American deaths.
“They are dying, that's true. And you have — it is what it is. But that doesn't mean we aren't doing everything we can. Athens, Tifton hospitals run out of beds for critical patients. ExploreStruggling rural Georgia hospital calls it quits The summer surge has caught the state flat footed, and with bed shortages plaguing multiple hospitals, Georgia plans to finally centralize decision-making on how to get the sickest patients to the nearest available beds. Within the next week, the state expects to launch a statewide coordinating center based at Grady Memorial Hospital, which will monitor patient capacity and patient overflows and act as a sort of air traffic control in shifting or diverting patients when hospitals become overrun, Cody Hall, a spokesman for Gov. Brian Kemp, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday. More Than 6,300 Coronavirus Cases Have Been Linked to U.S. Colleges.
As college students and professors decide whether to head back to class, and as universities weigh how and whether to reopen, the coronavirus is already on campus. A New York Times survey of every public four-year college in the country, as well as every private institution that competes in Division I sports or is a member of an elite group of research universities, revealed at least 6,300 cases tied to about 270 colleges over the course of the pandemic.
And the new academic year has not even begun at most schools. Confirmed coronavirus cases on college campuses. UGA Ranks Third in COVID Cases Among Colleges. The University of Georgia has the third-most coronavirus cases out of 270 colleges surveyed by the New York Times. In an investigation published today, the Times found more than 6,300 cases linked to colleges, even before the academic year has started for most of them. This data, which is almost certainly an undercount, shows the risks colleges face as they prepare for a school year in the midst of a pandemic. But because universities vary widely in size, and because some refused to provide information, comparing case totals from campus to campus may not provide a full picture of the relative risk.What is clear is that despite months of planning for a safe return to class, and despite drastic changes to campus life, the virus is already spreading widely at universities.
Dr. Anthony Fauci warns: Coronavirus won't ever be eradicated. White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Georgia Massaged Data to Reopen, Then Voided Mask Orders. Will Universities Be the Next COVID-19 Tinderboxes? Georgia Hospital Worker Sounds Alarm: 'I have never ever seen anything like this. Ever!' A Shutdown May Be Needed to Stop the Coronavirus. When you mix science and politics, you get politics. With the coronavirus, the United States has proved politics hasn’t worked.
Pedestrian & Bicycle Information Center. COVID-19 Resources and Community Tracking for Walking and Bicycling Source: Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center. Where Chronic Health Conditions and Coronavirus Could Collide. As the new coronavirus continues to spread over the next months, and maybe even years, it could exact a heavy new toll in areas of the United States that have not yet seen major outbreaks but have high rates of diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure and other chronic health conditions.
Large parts of the South and Appalachia are especially vulnerable, according to a health-risk index created for The New York Times by PolicyMap, a company that analyzes local health data. COVID-19 swamps another rural Georgia county. The Pandemic Isn’t a Black Swan but a Portent of a More Fragile Global System. 'Coronaman' Is the Horror Spoof PSA Georgia Needs. The distance between Atlanta City Hall and the Georgia governor’s office is only a block, but the two levels of government couldn’t sit farther apart when it comes to the issue of whether to reopen businesses in the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Two funerals and lack of social distancing: How coronavirus took over one small Georgia city. That cluster of coronavirus cases was linked to the funerals of 64-year-old Andrew J. Mitchell and another man, held in late February and early March, Dougherty County Council Chairman Chris Cohilas said. Slums are becoming a focal point of the Covid-19 outbreak. Why Georgia Isn’t Ready to Reopen, in Charts. COVID-19 Resources. COVID-19: Learning Lessons About Local Action From Past Outbreaks - NewCities. Without a single coronavirus death, Vietnam eases lockdown. Choice page. When Pollution and Poverty Meet Coronavirus. 'Glaring' racial disparities found in coronavirus infection rates in these New Orleans neighborhoods. Subsidize E-Scooters? Cities Should Consider It.
A photojournalist captured aerial pictures of a mass grave being built in New York City before police confiscated his drone. The Effect of the Coronavirus on America’s Black Communities. City Governments Will Need a Federal Bailout, Too.