District 2 Public Health and its medical lab partners – Mako Labs and LTS – are shutting down half a dozen COVID-19 testing sites in North Georgia.
The public health agency said in a press release Monday the following testing sites are scheduled to close by the end of this week:
- Franklin County Health Department – Last day in operation is April 21
- Lumpkin County Health Department – Last day in operation is April 21
- Habersham Medical Center – Last day in operation is April 21
- Stephens County Hospital – Last day in operation is April 22
- NGHS Braselton – Last day in operation is April 22
- Rabun Community Market – Last day in operation is April 22
The following testing sites will remain open:
- Forsyth County – Central Park Recreation Complex
2300 Keith Bridge Rd., Cumming, GA 30040 - Hall County – Sherwood Plaza
601 S. Enota Dr. NE, Gainesville, GA 30501 - Union County – Union General Hospital
35 Hospital Road, Blairsville, GA 30512
In explaining the District’s decision to close two-thirds of its COVID testing sites, District 2 Public Health Information Officer Natasha Young says: “Testing demand has decreased, particularly in smaller counties. We are averaging around 30 PCR tests per day between all sites.”
No more daily updates
Testing sites are not the only thing going away.
Friday was the last day that Georgia will be reporting COVID-19 data on all business days. Starting this week, we can expect a report of the week’s data each Wednesday, says Amber Schmidtke, Ph.D., who has been tracking the daily COVID data in Georgia since March 11, 2020.
Schmidtke’s doctorate is in medical microbiology and immunology. She has become well-known for her daily analysis. She says now is a “bad time” to be moving to weekly reports.
“See, the impetus for this change across multiple states to go to weekly reporting is the notion that the pandemic is finally over and we need to focus on other things. But that’s also happening while cases are surging in the northeast and starting to pick up elsewhere in the country.”
Dr. Schmidtke cautions, “The political narrative that the pandemic is ‘over’ is going to fall apart pretty quickly. Meanwhile, we won’t have timely and actionable data to understand the situation.”
The weekly case total for Georgia rose by 26% last week. Increased infections were seen across most age groups. Still, COVID numbers remain relatively low statewide compared to this time last year. The Georgia Department of Public Health confirmed 5,450 new cases in the last two weeks, less than half the number of cases recorded during the same timeframe last year.
Public health officials continue urging people to get vaccinated and boosted. Vaccines are now available for everyone 5 years and older.
“The fight against COVID-19 is not over,” says Young, stressing that District 2 Public Health will continue to provide COVID vaccines at all 13 county health departments on a walk-in basis.
