Top East Cobb 2021 stories: Cobb's continuing COVID response

East Cobb rapid COVID-19 testing — *Long lines formed in December 2021 at a COVID testing spot at East Cobb United Methodist Church.*

The year 2021 is ending in similar fashion to how it began: With a surge in COVID-19 cases that prompted calls for precautions, testing, vaccination and masking.

The Omicron variant that was sweeping through the United States as the Christmas holiday season approached was the third wave of the virus to take a toll on Cobb and elsewhere this year.

Long lines formed at testing locations, including East Cobb United Methodist Church, after Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid declared a COVID emergency for the fourth time in 2021.

That was on Dec. 22, when the case rates had jumped by more than 150 percent in a week. County buildings are also under an indoor mask mandate until Jan. 22, 2022.

Currently, the transmission rate of the virus in Cobb averaged 805 per 100,000 people, far above the “high” threshold of 100 per 100K.

Indeed, more than 1,000 cases in Cobb were reported each on Dec. 28 and Dec. 29, well above the highest reported date during the January 2021 surge.

Wednesday’s 1,865 reported cases is the highest single-day total in the county since the pandemic began in March 2020, and comes as county officials are advising more precautions through the holidays.

*Cobb COVID-19 cases are on a surge for the third time in 2021. For more data from the Georgia Department of Health, **click here**.*

Cobb and Douglas Public Health director Dr. Janet Memark is urging the public to limit indoor gatherings or to wear masks when they cannot avoid large crowds inside (see video interview with Cupid below, taped at the beginning of this week).

She also noted that only 58 percent of eligible adults and children in Cobb are considered “fully vaccinated,” and fewer than 20 percent have received booster shots.

Due to long testing lines she said that anyone who feels sick or has COVID-19 symptoms should skip that step, presume they have the virus and begin an isolation period.

Her message is similar to surges at the beginning of 2021, when school parents and teachers admonished the Cobb Board of Education for saying little about the COVID-related deaths of three teachers.

As the 2021-22 school year began, the Cobb County School District announced a masks-optional policy that prompted protests on both sides of the issue.

Parents, teachers, staff and others gathered at the district’s main office before school meetings to either demand a mask mandate that was in place the previous school year, or to keep them relaxed.

Superintendent Chris Ragsdale came under fire from the Cobb Board of Health as an early fall surge due to the Delta variant prompted demands for a mask mandate.

A special board meeting in September urged “universal masking” in schools following CDC guidance. Ragsdale, a member of the board, abstained, but the decision carried no mandates.

At the next Cobb school board meeting, he defended the district’s mask and COVID policies, saying data analysis showed that masking was not effective at slowing the spread of the virus.

Cobb schools have remained masks-optional, and four parents of medically fragile children filed a federal lawsuit against the district. In October, their request for a temporary injunction to force the district to follow CDC guidelines was denied.

At the same time, Cobb school board member David Banks sent an e-mail on his official account discouraging recipients from getting the COVID-19 vaccines. Banks never publicly responded to requests for comment, but he’s been criticized previously for explaining that he doesn’t wear masks because he thinks they don’t work.

Cobb County government COVID responses weren’t fraught with that kind of drama.

During three previous emergency declarations, Cobb government required mask use in indoor buildings and socially distanced at public meetings.

In December 2021 Cobb commissioners allocated the last of the county’s $133 million in funding from the federal CARES Act, spending most of the final monies to assist small business and to pay for protective equipment and other items for first responders.

The county used some previous funding to open a vaccine call center for several months. For several months Jim Miller Park served as mass vaccination center; Cobb and Douglas Public Health continues to provide free vaccinations at its main clinics.

The rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines in Cobb stumbled a bit in January, as a website created to book appointments and provide basic information crashed upon launch, leaving anxious seniors and medically fragile candidates for the shots frustrated, especially as the initial supplies of vaccines ran out.

As of Dec. 29, 435,286 Cobb County residents were fully vaccinated, 475,777 have had at least one dose and 147,491 have received boosters.

Since March 2020, there have been 97,398 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Cobb County, and 1,346 confirmed deaths.