The COVID-19 crisis has affected every aspect of our society. As folks sit in their homes – hopefully obeying social distancing guidelines – they are constantly searching for information on this developing situation. Unfortunately, there is a lot of false information being shared.
We are striving to bring you all the information we have both in our print editions and on our web site, with COVID-19 public health stories being available in front of our paywall.
Again, there is a lot of misinformation out there on social media, and unfortunately, even on our state-run web sites.
The Department of Public Health has a site set up that is updated twice a day to inform every one of the number of COVID-19 cases in each county in Georgia, along with how many total cases there have been and how many have died. The site is updated around noon and 7 p.m. every day.
At noon Friday, a positive case popped up in Habersham County, which we reported even though the District 2 Public Health Department was able to add no additional information. By the next update that evening, the case had vanished.
We sought answers, as did county officials, and no one received any. We were left to assume that it was a clerical error, as we reported in today’s edition.
The DPH site is certainly not fool proof, as Rabun County also showed no cases as of Monday evening, even though a positive case was reported to The Clayton Tribune.
“There are some issues with the web site and getting some information posted,” Dave Palmer, public information officer for District 2 Public Health, told The Tribune. “I’m hoping any discrepancies will be resolved soon.”
In Tuesday’s noon update, two cases popped up in Habersham and Rabun counties, the first two reported for both, presumably. But no local health officials were prepared to immediately offer any details.
Habersham Medical Center CEO Lynn Boggs has been transparent throughout this process and has consistently answered questions about how our hospital is handling things. Boggs said Tuesday that no patients have been treated for a positive case of COVID-19 at HMC as of press time.
We will use all our resources to keep track of this evolving health crisis to keep you informed.
Together, we will get through this.