Dade County Executive Ted Rumley in his Thursday update during the daily county COVID-19 briefing went over the changes Gov. Brian Kemp had announced Wednesday: Georgia's public health emergency status has been extended to May 13 and its shelter-in-place order to April 30. "This thing's far from being over," said the county boss.
Rumley did not announce Thursday's other big state announcement: that the general primary election has been postponed from May 19 until June 9. This comes amid a national shortage of poll workers willing to risk infection to man the polls.
Rumley did go over the governor's closing of short-term rentals, which excludes hotels and campgrounds, and how that affects Dade's own big tourist getaway, Cloudland Canyon State Park: It doesn't. But Rumley said the governor had promised to monitor the compromise order he did put in place, which limits the cars allowed in at one time. "He assured us if it's not working...he will close the park," said Rumley.
Rumley said the park was not as swamped as it was the last weekend in March, when the influx of tourists in the current self-quarantine was enough to start the county's push to close it, but it still averaged 80 to 90 cars per day. "That's still a lot of people in and out," he said.
Kemp's order on Wednesday also activated 3000 National Guard troops. "That kind of alarms some people," said Rumley. "We've had a few calls on that." Not to worry, he said: what the troops are doing is working in hospitals and nursing home to sanitize them against the coronavirus. Rumley said he'd spoken with Lamar Lowery, the District 1 county commissioner, who works at Cornerstone--the old Hutcheson--Medical Center in Fort Oglethorpe. Lowery had told him the troops were assisting there, said Rumley.
Rumley also mentioned the Southeastern Lineman Training Center, saying he, Emergency Services Director Alex Case and Sheriff Ray Cross had met with leadership there and learned the college was planning tentatively to convene its next class sometime in May. That depends, he added, on whether the governor or for that matter the president extends the quarantine. He explained the county's concern: SLTC during each of its terms brings in around 250 young people from all over the nation to train as linemen. "It's important for our economy but what we're thinking about now is safety," he said.
The county boss said Dade is doing well with shelter-in-place compliance--"I feel good that we're doing all we can." but warned that the pandemic's expected peak is still in store. "This week and next week is what they're calling the Pearl Harbor Day," he said.
Number-wise, Dade was still in the same place Thursday as it has stayed all week--only two cases including one patient who died last week--though the state numbers continued to climb, 10,566 cases Thursday up from 9901 Wednesday, 379 deaths up from 362.. The counties surrounding were not climbing that much--Hamilton in Tennessee at 97 up from 94 the day before, Jackson in Alabama up from 18 to 22, DeKalb holding steady at 14. Walker was back up to 4--it had gone from 4 to 3 the day before, somehow. How this happens is still a mystery, as discussed the day before, but Rumley pointed out the Georgia COVID-19 daily status reports lists 1020 cases as residing in "unknown" counties. As the state identifies their true residency, numbers may change
Dade Schools Central Office employee Josh Ingle announced that school bus delivery of free lunches for kids begins again Monday after spring break this week. As before, meals are delivered Monday and Wednesday four hours after the bus's usual morning pickup time, and recipients should provide a container or towel, along with a note of how many kids are to be served, so that the food can be delivered with the minimum of human contact. Alternatively, parents may pick up their children's meals from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. at Dade or Davis Elementary.
With one more case of the virus identified in Dade, and the county buzzing to know who it is, public health nurse Tammy Franklin came on to stress that the local health office doesn't know. The process is that the regional office in Rome is alerted but that information is not passed on to the county, she said. "Just remember, none of us here know names so don't call and ask," said Ms. Franklin.
Anyway, she said, it's better to assume that everybody has it and protect yourself accordingly. "To know who's positive would give you a false sense of security," she said. She reminded all of the importance of social distancing, showing the dramatic reduction in expected infections when people reduce their number of social contacts.
Sheriff Ray Cross said two more people had been arrested and charged with violation of the shelter-in-place order among other charges. "Don't forget once you get entered into our jail you're going to be in quarantine for 14 days," he said.
Cross said he'd had a call about residents continuing to hold yard sales and swap meets in Trenton. "You're not really supposed to do that," he reminded. The shelter-in-place order allows for necessary shopping such as groceries or prescriptions, but not tag sales. He said people drive from Alabama and Tennessee to come to them, which obviously defeats the purpose of the lockdown.
Deputy County Clerk Carey Anderson said she'd try to start reporting the number of people who had recovered from COVID-19 as those figures become available. She said Johns Hopkins Hospital estimated over 300,000 have recovered from it.
Dade Emergency Services Director and Trenton Mayor Alex Case reminded that the epidemic is still on a turnup. "We cannot let our guard up," he said. Of the second COVID-19 case diagnosed in Dade, Case said he'd contacted the public health office in Rome to see if any Dade first responders had been exposed in rescue or transport of the afflicted individual.
These COVID-19 county updates are livestreamed each day at 3 p.m. from the Dade County Ga. Facebook page. "Like" the page and you will be alerted when the county goes live. Alternatively, you may watch any day's video later either on that page or from The Planet's FB page, where they are also shared.
