State’s Health Care System Under Stress

• 33% of Hospital Beds Taken by COVID-19, A Record
• 1890 Adult Ventilators in Use.  January Peak:  1666
• 2793 State ICU Beds in Use, which is 94.5% of Capacity
• State Shatters Record For COVID-19 Hospitalizations | 90.1 FM WABE
• COVID-19 Cases Surge Among State's Kids
   

Breakthrough COVID - My Cautionary Tale

• If you are in an indoor meeting, shopping, crowded public or private event or public space like an airport or subway, please wear your mask (ideally a N95 or KN95).  Cloth masks protect others from you, but respirator masks like N95 or KN95 protect you from others.  
• If you are exposed to someone with COVID, please quarantine for five days, and then get a PCR test.  
• The at home antigen tests can give false negatives.  See this article: Are at-home covid antigen tests accurate? What to know.
• Sleeping in the same house with someone with COVID is a big exposure risk.  We got COVID from a houseguest, the houseguest got COVID from her husband
• Traveling is a big exposure risk. The husband had no known exposure outside of flying home from vacation.  
• If you think you have just a cold or just a headache and test negative on the at home test, please get a PCR test to make sure.   
• What Vaccinated People Need to Know about Breakthrough Infection

But what is bad is that before David and I became symptomatic, we exposed friends to the virus who had travel plans this week, or plans to take care of their grandchildren, or many other situations.  Thankfully, so far, none of our exposed friends have shown symptoms or tested positive.  But our selfishness, desire to be social,  and a little bit of denial has caused a ripple effect.   To our friends and family who have been affected by our actions, David and I sincerely apologize. 

To other friends and family, please learn from our experience - especially about the quarantining for 5 days if you think you were exposed - you don’t want to have to make these calls to your friends and family and tell them you have exposed them to the virus!  

Timeline in 2021: 
March 19, received 1st Pfizer dose.
April 9, received 2nd Pfizer dose
August 17: Friend is hospitalized with pneumonia. Tested twice with a PCR test, that afternoon and evening, and COVID was negative.  The hospital is confident our friend did not have COVID
August 19:  Friend’s husband has an unexplained case of “the sweats.” and otherwise feels fine.  Later in  the day he visits wife in the hospital but otherwise feels fine.  
August 20:  Friend comes home from the hospital.  Husband doesn’t feel that well.  
August 21:  Friend’s husband tests positive with BINAX antigen at home.  Upon recommendation of her doctor, friend needs to move asap from her house, as her lungs are fragile from pneumonia.  I offer our guest room at our house.  We mask with K95 masks, social distance,  and she eats in her room.  
August 23:  Friend and I both test negative with BINAX at-home antigen test, and take a walk unmasked outside.  
August 24: Friend goes to Moderna office - she was a part of the clinical trial.  (Her second shot was in Sept 2020, 11 months ago.) She tests positive with the PCR Test.  
August 25:  I go to Capitol and take saliva testing from GA Tech and my husband takes the BINAX at-home antigen test.  He and I both test negative.  
August 26:  Friend moves to another friend’s empty house-that is my last physical contact, masked and from a distance - that morning. 
My husband and I  feel fine - asymptomatic.  We go to an event at Sweetwater Brewery - wear masks inside but take off to drink beer, and don’t wear masks outside.
August 27:  We feel fine - asymptomatic.  We go to an event at the Monday Night Garage Brewery  - wear masks inside but take off to drink.  We eat outside.  
August 28:  Wake up not feeling quite right.    Take BINAX at- home antigen test.  David is positive, with a very faint line, and I am negative.  I took the test again, to make sure there was no “operator error.”, and I am negative.  
That afternoon I developed a low grade fever and headache and achiness.  
August 29:  I test myself again with the BINAX at -home antigen test, and I am negative.  Since I am symptomatic, I test myself again.  Still negative.
2:30pm that day we get tested with a PCR test.  That evening we received notice that we are both positive, which was no surprise to us.   

To get PCR tested, here are some recommendations:  

The Takeaway from my nurse friend, who has reviewed this story and timeline (and been affected by our actions):  

“We all need to mask up indoors, monitor ourselves, and encourage more people to get vaccinated.”   
 

How is COVID in our children’s schools? 

The Public Good - Appreciating our Public Health, Public Safety, and Public School Teachers

I have been thinking a lot about how the social fabric of our public institutions is fraying under the stress of the pandemic.  Our hospitals are swamped as COVID is raging.  Our police and public safety officers are understaffed and on edge, trying to protect us from crime.   Many of our public school teachers are having to teach both virtually and in person under the threat of COVID. 

 I am especially concerned about our hospitals,  healthcare workers, and public health workers.  The incredible amount of disinformation about COVID and vaccines, our governor’s lack of strategy to deal with  COVID, avoiding mandates and keeping our economy completely open, and our low vaccination rate  has put a tremendous strain on our hospitals and our health care workers. I am sickened by the antivaxxers harrassing public health workers.  

How can we show appreciation to these incredible public servants, who put their lives on the line for us every day? I am thinking back to the first months of the pandemic, Spring 2020, where we joined together to show our support.   If you have ideas or want to help or talk with me about this, please complete this form: Appreciating those who work for the Public Good  

Georgia Dept of Public Health Summary below: as of 12:00PM EST 08/27/2021  

Residents with at Least One Dose of Vaccine: 5,234,022 (50%; up 1 percentage point from last week)
Residents Fully Vaccinated: 4,452,134 (43%; up 1 percentage point from last week)
 
How to find a vaccine?
Health Department Vaccine Scheduling Resource Line
(888) 457-0186
Monday – Friday 8 AM – 8 PM ET
Saturday – Sunday 8 AM – 5 PM ET
Health Department Vaccine Schedule Web Portal: https://gta-vras.powerappsportals.us/en-US/
Vaccine Finder: https://www.vaccines.gov/
CORE Vaccination Pop-Up Events: https://www.coreresponse.org/covid-19/atlanta-ga
 
Current COVID-19 Cases
There were nearly 11,000 new cases reported Wednesday and Thursday of this week, which is nearly 10 times the daily total from August 1st and near January-peak levels. We are seeing large increases in recent cases among school-aged children – a 60% increase in the overall number of cases among children aged 5-17 years. The proportion of PCR tests that were positive in Georgia increased by 17% over the last 14 days.

Current COVID-19 Hospitalization Numbers

The number of hospitalizations increased by 79% over the past 7 days and we are seeing strains on the hospital system. In fact, if we look at the daily census of patients hospitalized with COVID in Georgia, we see rapid accelerations and a total of nearly 5,500 today, closely approaching the highest ever, which was 5,700 on January 13, 2021. More than half (51%) of all COVID hospitalizations in the last 30 days were among those 40-69 years old, and 51% of COVID cases in the last 30 days were among those 18-49 years (both trending younger than earlier in the pandemic).

Nearly all COVID deaths and hospitalizations occurred among unvaccinated individuals, but breakthrough infections have increased during August.

We have found that of all fully vaccinated people in Georgia (>4.4M), 25,040 (0.5%) have tested positive for COVID; 1,009 were hospitalized for any reason (0.02%); and 168 died from COVID (0.004%). 63% (15,872/25,040) of all breakthrough infections have occurred during August.

COVID-19 Vaccine Rates

With the recent Delta-driven surge in cases, we are also seeing recent increases in vaccination rates across all age groups except children. The total number of 1st doses administered during the second week of August was more than double than the second week of July, but the number of first doses administered to adolescents decreased compared to last week (14% decrease for ages 12-15 and 12% decrease for ages 16-17). Of the vaccine recipients with at least one dose, as of Wednesday, 416,092 doses were administered to children 12-19 years (only 7.9% of the total), whereas almost half (46%) were administered to those between 55-85+ years.

Do You Need a Vaccine over Labor Day Weekend?  

DPH Press Release on Hospital Diversion

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