Georgia Governor Brian Kemp is calling in the National Guard to help ease the strain of a COIVD-19 surge and a nursing shortage on Georgia’s ailing hospitals.
Kemp will deploy 105 personnel to hospitals throughout the state. These trained medical personnel will assist staff at the following hospitals:
▪ Southeast Georgia Health System, Brunswick
▪ Northeast Georgia Medical Center, Gainesville
▪ Wellstar Kennestone, Marietta
▪ Piedmont Henry, Stockbridge
▪ Phoebe Putney, Albany
▪ Memorial Health University Medical Center, Savannah
▪ Navicent Health, Macon
▪ Grady Hospital, Atlanta
▪ Piedmont Fayette, Fayetteville
▪ Houston Medical Center, Warner Robins
“These guardsmen will assist our frontline healthcare workers as they provide quality medical care during the current increase in cases and hospitalizations, and I greatly appreciate General Carden and his team for their willingness to answer the call again in our fight against COVID-19,” Kemp said. “This Georgia National Guard mission is in addition to the 2,800 state-supported staff and 450 new beds brought online I announced last week, at a total state investment of $625 million through December of this year. I continue to urge all Georgians to talk to a medical professional about getting vaccinated.”
Georgia and its hospitals have been ravaged by a new wave of COVID-19 driven by the delta variant and it’s high infection rate among the unvaccinated. The map below shows the number of cases per 100,000 residents in each county. The darker the shade of red, the higher the infection rate. It shows most of Georgia is essentially a hotspot for the virus at this point.
According to the Georgia Department of health, the sate currently averages 7,825 new coronavirus cases per day. Each day about 32 people in Georgia die from the virus.
Statewide, Georgia’s hospitals are at 88.6% capacity bed for ICU beds and 81.6% capacity for Emergency Department beds. Below is a graph showing the recent surge in ICU bed usage.
HOW TO GET VACCINATED: COVID-19 has killed more than 30,000 Georgia residents. Don’t let yourself or your loved ones die from a preventable virus. COVID vaccines are free and widely available statewide without insurance or identification. To find a vaccination location or to schedule an appointment, visit https://dph.georgia.gov/covid-vaccine.
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