WABE’s Week in Review: Georgia Hits One-Day Covid Record as More Vaccines Arrive | 90.1 FM WABE – WABE 90.1 FM

Georgia hit an unwanted but not completely unexpected record this week: 7,899 confirmed Covid-19 cases in one day. The number, announced on Christmas Eve, breaks the states previous high by some 1,700 cases.

Health experts have, for months, warned of the winter holidays, saying the elevated case numbers this entire month are due to Thanksgiving travel and gatherings. And they are bracing for more cases after the Christmas and New Years holidays.

State officials have urged people to keep following coronavirus prevention measures, like mask wearing and physical distancing, even during the holidays. AndGovernor Brian Kemp announced, Tuesday, the state will be re-opening a temporary medical facility at the Georgia World Congress Center to relieve stress from hospitals amid the rising cases.

Meantime, more than 150,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine produced by Moderna are now in the state.Georgias public health commissioner, Doctor Kathleen Toomey, said this vaccine is easier to store than the one from Pfizer.

There were parts of rural Georgia, including our own public health departments, that werent able to receive them, said Toomey. With now the Moderna vaccine, we can literally cover the state with vaccinations, and were very excited to begin that process.

Front line health care workers and those who work at long-term care facilities are receiving vaccinations first.

More People Going Hungry in Georgia During the Pandemic

The economic downturn caused by the coronavirus is exacerbating hunger in Georgia. Before the pandemic, more than a million Georgians needed help getting enough food. Now, even with a new relief package from Congress, experts are warning that higher levels of hunger could continue for years.

Many people needing help are those in businesses like restaurants and hotels crushed by the economic slowdown from the pandemic, according to Lily Pabian, executive director of WeLoveBuHi, a community organization behind food distribution events along Buford Highway.

These communities are frontline workers, said Pabian. They live pretty much paycheck to paycheck. They dont have the comfort of 401k, retirements, all that stuff. If they want to pay the bills, they have to work.

The food banks are responding to an unrelenting 50-percent increase in demand for food, said Danah Craft, executive director of the Georgia Food Bank Association. And it has grown in the last 60 days.

Some 40-percent of the people coming for help now have never had to look for assistance before, according to Craft.

The Georgia Food Bank Association estimatesone in five children in Georgia right now is experiencing food insecurity. And food banks the association works with are supplying 8 million more meals a month than they were pre-pandemic.

This heightened need to respond to hunger will last much longer than the pandemic itself because the economy wont bounce back instantly, said Tom Rawlings, Director of the State Division of Family and Children Services. And that will force nonprofits, food banks, and government agencies to fill the gap for years to come.

High Schoolers Are Helping Remove a Controversial Relic

Decatur city commissioners unanimously backed a resolution to remove the Indian War cannon from in front of the old Dekalb County Courthouse.

High school students in Decatur pushed for the resolution saying the monument, placed there in 1906 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, celebrates the forced removal of Native Americans from the South.

Certain community members dont want this cannon to reflect oppression or a horrible history, said Decatur High School student Koan Roy-Meighoo. But, the fact of the matter is, it does.

Dekalb County Commissioners will have to make the official removal as the cannon is on county property.

Remembering Those Many Have Forgotten

Each year theres a candlelight memorial to recognize the deaths of those who are homeless in Fulton County.

Mercy Care, a major health care provider for the homeless in Atlanta, leads the event. The medical center moved it online for 2020 because of the ongoing pandemic.

Dozens still joined the Zoom call earlier this week and held a candle up to their screen, as Mercy Care staff read the names of 73 people who died homeless.

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WABE's Week in Review: Georgia Hits One-Day Covid Record as More Vaccines Arrive | 90.1 FM WABE - WABE 90.1 FM