{"id":28282,"date":"2021-08-27T11:49:02","date_gmt":"2021-08-27T15:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/?p=28282"},"modified":"2021-08-27T11:53:16","modified_gmt":"2021-08-27T15:53:16","slug":"everybody-is-acting-as-if-nothing-is-going-on-despite-coronavirus-surge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/?p=28282","title":{"rendered":"‘Everybody is acting as if nothing is going on’ despite coronavirus surge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Cases of COVID-19<\/a> in Georgia have surged to levels not seen since the virus peaked last January, a public health expert warned this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New cases statewide are nearing 8,000 a day, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of Georgians being tested for COVID-19, 17.2% are turning up positive, Dr. Janet Memark, district health director for Cobb & Douglas Public Health, said Thursday during an online forum sponsored by the Georgia House Democratic Caucus. The community is considered safe when fewer than 5% of test results are positive, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Memark blamed the delta variant, which is much more contagious than the original strain of coronavirus that first struck Georgia in March of last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is just really rampant now throughout our communities,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Memark said many hospitals are being strained, with unvaccinated Georgians making up the vast majority of rising patient loads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are seeing some breakthrough cases,\u201d she said. \u201cBut they\u2019re not being hospitalized or dying. The vaccine is working.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Carlos del Rio, a leading epidemiologist at Emory University, said a person who contracts the delta variant of COVID-19 can infect up to eight others, making it much more dangerous than the original strain, which typically can infect two to three people exposed to someone with the virus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe virus we\u2019re facing today is very different from the original virus,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is so highly transmissible, it\u2019s not the COVID we knew a year ago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Memark said another disturbing aspect of the current stage of COVID-19 is that it\u2019s hitting children. In Georgia, cases involving children between the ages of 11 and 17 have doubled in the last week, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Pfizer won formal approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration this week. However, that approval did not extend to children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Del Rio said he expects researchers will have a vaccine<\/a> available for kids by November or December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, he said he\u2019s concerned that COVID fatigue is causing Georgians to let down their guard at a dangerous time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are in a major surge right now, yet the restaurants are full,\u201d he said. \u201cEverybody is acting as if nothing is going on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Del Rio said while vaccines are the best defense against COVID-19, including the delta variant, people still need to wear masks, practice social distancing and wash their hands frequently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople are very tired. I understand that,\u201d he said. \u201cWe all want this to be over. [But] it\u2019s not going to be over when we want.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Georgia passed the 1 million mark in cases of coronavirus last week and was up to 1,056,788 cases as of Thursday afternoon. The virus has hospitalized 71,862 Georgians and resulted in 22,492 confirmed or probable deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cases of COVID-19 in Georgia have surged to levels not seen since the virus peaked last January, a public health expert warned this week. New cases statewide are nearing 8,000 a day, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health. Of Georgians being tested for COVID-19, 17.2% are turning up positive, Dr. Janet Memark, district […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7286],"tags":[8481,8480,8474,9485],"class_list":["post-28282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coronavirus","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-sun","tag-top","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}