Dade's COVID-19 numbers are up to 15 today from 13 Thursday, and Walker County next door skyrocketed from 36 to 59 in the same 24 hours. But the Georgia Department of Public Health is advising county officials not to worry, that these big jumps are probably due to results of the new antibody test now available for a $40 fee at the DPH testing facility that opened recently in Walker County.
The test detects whether a person has formed antibodies against COVID-19, which if present would indicate the body has been exposed to the virus and overcome it, whether or not the person ever had symptoms. From what DPH is telling the counties, this means Dade doesn't necessarily have 14 people (one has died) sick in bed with coronavirus; instead, some of those may be walking around perfectly healthy but did at some point have the virus and for some reason felt impelled to pay for the test.
Carey Anderson, Dade's deputy clerk for public information, had called DPH after receiving an informational email on the subject, and at today's 3 p.m. livestreamed county briefing she provided another interesting factoid about the antibody tests: The regional health department has received about 100 "presumptive positive" tests so far, and most of those cases had been asymptomatic. "These are not acute cases, but they do inflate the numbers," DPH's email had read.
It's not much information but the county officials at today's briefing seemed happy to get it. During this pandemic crisis they have often expressed frustration at how little DPH lets them know because of strict medical privacy laws.
COVID-19 numbers in the other nearby Georgia counties are also up. Catoosa went from 29 to 45 in a day, Whitfield 47 to 59. Statewide, numbers continue growing, too. Total confirmed Georgia cases at noon were 21, 512, up from 20,740 Wednesday, and deaths went to 872 from 836. That's 772 new cases and 36 deaths in 24 hours.
Dade County Executive Chairman Ted Rumley read the daily numbers and also announced that David Powell of the Southeastern Lineman Training Center will come to Friday's daily briefing to talk about what the school is doing to protect Dade from infection by the 250 or so students who will flood the county in May from all over the nation to train for electrical and telecommunications work.
Rumley said the county buildings do not plan to open back up to the public until after April 30. He and Alex Case, the 911 director is also the mayor of Trenton, described how both county and city are putting up plexiglass shields at counters where workers deal with the public and making other changes to comply with the rules for reopening in this time of continued pandemic. After that, said Rumley, "We'll try to get down to business as usual."
On another subject, Rumley said after this morning's high winds, 144 Dade households had been out of power, 34 still out at the time of the briefing, with 30 to 35 trees down. "Just a quick storm went through," he said. "It was kind of a strange event we had." There is still a good complement of Georgia Power trucks in Dade clearing up after the Easter Sunday tornado, he said, and they will stay through this evening in case Ma Nature throws anything else at the county that will knock out the lights.
Alex Case said there was only a five percent chance of tornadoes, though the probability of severe storms has been upgraded from "marginal" to slight." He and the 911 center will be monitoring the weather, he said, and will send out alerts as appropriate.
He and Carey Anderson both talked about the 20 points businesses must adhere to in order to reopen from the lockdown. The city government must observe these as well, he said, altering physical arrangements and retooling procedures to keep employees safe. He said he didn't know when City Hall will be ready to reopen, repeating several times that Trenton had to be careful its clerks didn't catch the deadly virus because there were only two of them.
As it stands, both city and county commission offices are easy for citizens to breeze right into, said Case. "We feel those times are fixin' to change for us," he said. "It may be the new norm."
Reporting on the tornado cleanup, he said the county will keep picking up debris on the roadside as long as possible though the service may soon have to be cut to a day or two a week.
Carey Anderson read rapidly through some of the 20 points of Gov. Kemp's executive orders, which are mostly concerned with social distancing rules, sanitation, et cetera. She has posted them on the dadecounty-ga.gov website. Click her smiling mug to go to them directly.
Rumley concluded today's session with a quick word about church services, which may now resume with Georgia's partial reopening. But churches, like businesses, are supposed to follow strict social distance guidelines, he said. Please don't go if you're ill, he said, sit six feet away from the people beside, in front and behind you, and wear your mask during the sermon. Cohabiting family groups can sit together, of course, he added. He did not say "cohabiting."
These briefings are livestreamed from the Dade County Ga. Facebook page at 3 p.m. every day. "Like" the page and you'll be notified when the county goes live. Alternatively, you may watch the video afterwards either on the county's page or The Planet's, where they are routinely shared.
