Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid will conduct a virtual town hall Thursday to discuss the county’s response to the latest COVID-19 surge.
She will be joined Cobb and Douglas Public Health director Dr. Janet Memark and WellStar’s Medical Director of Infectious Disease, Dr. Danny Branstetter starting at 6:30 p.m.
The town hall will be live-streamed on the county’s YouTube and Facebook pages. Citizens can ask questions during the meeting or in advance by e-mailing: comments@cobbcounty.org.
On Tuesday, Memark briefed the Cobb Board of Commissioners about skyrocketing COVID-19 metrics, including a current 14-day average of 2,657 cases per 100,000 people.
That’s far above the “high” transmission threshold of 100/100K, and Memark attributed that to the fast-moving Omicron variant.
While many of the symptoms of that variant are milder than previous versions of the virus, she said local hospitalization capacity is being strained.
Cupid, who declared a state of emergency through Jan. 22, defended the county’s decision to limit attendance at county-run aquatic centers for high school swimming meets.
Commissioners have received a high volume of e-mails complaining that family members aren’t being allowed inside to watch the competition.
“We do feel for the parents who have been impacted,” she said during a virtual meeting, in which she was masked but was the only commissioner in attendance in the board’s public meeting room.
“We’re hoping to get through this and reduce that very high number. We can share numbers with you, but the most compelling are the experiences we are seeing and feeling in real time.
“People are still experiencing impacts . . . long COVID due to the Omicron variant. These are not conditions that we want anyone to experience. We’ve also got to think about our health care infrastructure.”
(You can watch Memark’s presentation by clicking here; it’s at the beginning of the meeting.)
Memark outlined extra testing efforts, including additional sites for the public to get tested. She also urged those unvaccinated to do so, including booster shots.
Cobb’s “fully vaccinated” population is only 58 percent, with 64 percent having had at least an initial dose and only 20 percent boosted.
More testing and vaccination information from Cobb and Douglas Public Health by clicking here.
Cupid said more information about 60,000 at-home test kits ordered last week by the Cobb Emergency Management Agency will be coming later this week. There will be a distribution event from 8-10 a.m. Monday at Jim Miller Park.
Related posts:
- Cobb keeping aquatic center restrictions despite protests
- Cobb government to issue 60K in-home COVID-19 tests
- Cobb and Douglas Public Health opens more COVID-19 test sites
- Cobb jury trials paused in Cobb through Jan. 21
- Cobb issues emergency declaration through Jan. 22
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