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COVID-19
Over the weekend, Georgia saw it’s highest spike in COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began. Since Thursday afternoon, the Georgia Department of Public Health reported 4,890 new positive cases.
“I do know that we’re testing more people, and with reopening the economy, we expected to see a bump in the number of cases once more people started being in public. We knew that was going to be part of it,” said Dave Palmer, District 2 Public Health spokesman.
At the June 13 drive-thru COVID-19 testing event sponsored by District 2 Public Health, 44 of 452 patients tested in Habersham and Hall counties returned positive results.
This number, which encompasses about 9.73% of those tested, sits slightly above the state’s percentage of positive test results.
As of Tuesday morning, the Georgia Department of Public Health reported that 708,026 COVID-19 tests had been administered in the state, and 60,017 returned with positive results.
Like the state, Habersham County has also seen a sharp increase in its number of COVID-19 positive cases too, as the DPH reported 15 additional cases bringing the county’s total to 639 as of Tuesday morning.
Since June 2, Georgia has seen 12,118 new cases, while Habersham County has seen its number rise by 109 in the same time frame.
Statewide, there have been 2,648 COVID-19-related deaths, with 34 of those coming from Habersham County.
Fieldale Farms Corp. President Tom Hensley reported no current cases of COVID-19 at their Cornelia Plant as of Tuesday.
The Cornelia plant has reported 244 positive cases and two deaths since the outbreak began.
Health and sanitation precautions remain the same as previously reported by The Northeast Georgian. This includes taking temperatures before entering the processing plant, using dividers between workers and using Personal Protective Equipment.
“We’re not letting our guard down yet,” Hensley said.
With the large jump in the number of positive tests in the state, Palmer said that the percentage of tests that return as positive has stayed relatively constant at about 8% throughout the state.
Even so, local officials still encourage residents to adhere to the CDC’s best practice to minimize the virus’ spread.
On Monday, Sheriff Joey Terrell and Emegency Services Director Chad Black posted a video on the Sheriff’s Department Facebook page educating and reminding citizens about COVID-19 safety tips.
“I know that churches are starting to open back up and we’re in the Bible Belt and everybody loves to hug and carry on, well that’s where you can spread COVID, colds, the flu and all this other stuff,” Terrell said. “Be mindful that this thing’s not gone away yet, and we need to be careful continually.”
Palmer echoed this, and added that all safety precautions are important in minimizing the virus’ spread.
“I just encourage people to continue doing the things we’ve asked them to do to mitigate the illness’ spread,” Palmer said. “Wear your face coverings in public, stay home if you’re sick and keep your distance from others whenever possible.”
ANTIBODY TESTING
Chief Operations Officer of Habersham Medical Center Angela Harpold said they could have in-house antibody testing at the hospital as early as next week. Harpold said they still have to complete quality control testing before moving forward.
Patients will need a physician’s order to have a test.
Harpold explained the confusion behind the accuracy of antibody testing as she highlighted two antibody tests you can take for COVID-19 – an IgM (Immunoglobulin M) antibody test and a IgG (Immunoglobulin G) antibody test.
IgM antibodies are developed during an active immune response and can be detected early in a COVID-19 infection. These antibodies help the body fight off the initial COVID-19 infection. IgG antibodies are the long-term antibodies developed by the body to help the body both identify and respond to an infectious agent after an initial infection.
“What we want to know is if you’ve moved on to that second phase (with IgG). If you’re past the infectious stage and you’re in the second phase,” Harpold said.
However, there can still be some complications with the IgG test.
“If it’s negative it doesn’t mean you never had exposure, that’s the caveat … some people get it and over the illness in a couple of days. They never convert to those longer antibodies,” Harpold said. “So that’s another part of the confusion. But then you have other people that had [COVID-19] for a few weeks – were really sick with it — and they certainly built the longer term antibodies, so they would test positive for that.”
Incoming CEO Tyler Williams also mentioned that those longer term antibodies can’t be recorded by the test after a certain amount of time. COVID-19 is unlike a disease similar to chicken pox where one can test if they’ve had it as far back as their childhood.
“The IgG antibodies can fall off after a certain period of time … there’s a certain load that it gets to and eventually over time it starts to decline and it can drop below the threshold that can be picked up on the test,” he said.
Staff writer Eric Pereira contributed to this report.