Governor Brian Kemp, a Republican, has deployed 105 members of the Georgia National Guard to twenty hospitals across the state as COVID-19 infections strain the health care system.
“These guardsmen will assist our frontline healthcare workers as they provide quality medical care during the current increase in cases and hospitalizations, and I greatly appreciate General Carden and his team for their willingness to answer the call again in our fight against COVID-19,” Kemp said in a statement.
According to The New York Times, an average of 5,683 Georgians a day are hospitalized with COVID-19, which represents a 55% 14-day increase.
New infections among children are also on the rise. Nearly 2,000 Georgia children are being diagnosed with COVID-19 a day, according to the Georgia Department of Health. That’s forced many school districts in the state to suspend in-person learning just weeks after the school year started.
A local Fox affiliate provides context:
Health care providers at some of Georgia’s largest hospital systems have warned about the increasing toll of the latest surge on younger patients, hospital staffs and healthcare capacity as they implored people to get vaccinated, wear masks and avoid large gatherings.
“The unfortunate thing is we don’t have the luxury of saying, ‘We’re full, and we’re closed,’” said Robert Jansen, chief medical officer at Atlanta’s Grady Health System. “We’re not a hotel, so people will continue to come and our staff will continue to cope and we’ll continue to find places to take care of these patients, but it is going to be difficult and it’s not going to be easy and it won’t make people happy.”
Jansen added that his emergency room is facing a “tsunami” of infected patients, which has caused delays in treating non-COVID issues.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that “Georgia’s nursing shortage is at crisis levels and health care leaders are pleading with residents to get vaccinated and take other precautions to slow the spread of the disease as emergency rooms and intensive care units fill up. “
Despite the recent surge, Kemp issued an executive order last week that defanged the state’s indoor mask mandate.
But Kemp has poured $625 million into the effort to staff hospitals with extra caregivers. That money should cover 2,800 positions through December.
According to Axios, Oregon, Hawaii and Kentucky have also deployed national guard troops to help with COVID-19 case surges.
