Georgia National Guard troops will return to Habersham County this weekend as part of the state’s ongoing pandemic response. Troops are disinfecting long-term care facilities and nursing homes across Georgia. They’re also testing residents and staff. Guard members are due to return to Habersham Home on the Habersham Medical Center campus in Demorest on Saturday, May 9 to conduct onsite testing.
At least eleven Habersham Home residents have tested positive for the virus. “It is important to note that our COVID-19 positive residents have not developed symptoms severe enough to require hospitalization,” says HMC spokesperson Kesha Clinkscale. Habersham Home has a COVID-19 isolation area with designated staff to treat and care for residents who test positive.
As of May 1, the last day statistics for the facility were released, fourteen Habersham Home employees were quarantined at home. Some tested positive for the virus, others quarantined themselves due to symptoms and possible exposure.
Increased risks
Now that Gov. Brian Kemp is gradually reopening the state for business, residents in long-term care facilities face additional risks of exposure, as staffers circulate through environments where social distancing is decreasing.
Dawson Health and Rehabilitation Center in Terrell County is a cautionary tale of the toll already inflicted on vulnerable residents and the dangers they face as Georgia reopens. Fourteen of the roughly 60 residents at the small nursing home have died from COVID-19 over the past month.
Preventing that type of spread and outcome is the National Guard’s focus. Troops spent several hours on Wednesday, May 6, sanitizing and deep cleaning Friendship Health and Rehab in Cleveland. They also tested residents and staff members for the coronavirus.
Visitors banned
Visitors are banned from Georgia’s nursing homes until at least June 12. That’s when Gov. Kemp’s shelter in place order for people over the age of 65 and those considered medically fragile expires.
In the meantime, nursing home residents are staying in touch with their families through online apps such as Facetime and ZOOM. At Friendship Health, they’re also using Telemed to help keep residents safe.
Friendship Health is following other safety protocols, too, to protect residents including checking employees’ temperatures, wearing masks, and sanitizing the facility throughout the day.
So far those measures appear to be working.
Of the 19 residents and 15 staff members at Friendship Health who were tested, only one staffer turned up positive, according to facility director Anne Marie Wingate. That employee had not been working at the facility for over two weeks. No residents tested positive.
White County Public Safety Director David Murphy says the National Guard may test the entire facility. They’re still awaiting a decision.
Jaymi Crawford of WRWH News, Max Blau, and Andy Miller of Georgia Health News contributed to this report.
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