Spike in Covid cases in Georgia related to travel, testing

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Consultants say a rise in journey and testing after Thanksgiving might be a motive for the Christmas Eve spike.

ATLANTA — After a giant bounce in COVID-19 circumstances on Christmas Eve, numbers went again to similar trends we noticed early December. Nonetheless, the record-breaking numbers from December 24th are regarding well being officers.

On Christmas, the Department of Public Health reported greater than 5,000 COVID-19 circumstances. That is down from Christmas Eve’s report of almost 8,000 circumstances.

In whole, Georgia has seen greater than 530,000 circumstances because the pandemic obtained began. Well being officers, together with Dr. Jeremy Willis, who owns Precedence Laboratories in Union Metropolis, are connecting a part of that peak to vacation journey, and so they fear circumstances will proceed to spike within the new 12 months.

“We need to do the identical issues we had been doing earlier than the pandemic, within the midst, and the peak of the pandemic,” stated Dr. Willis. “As contagious as this virus is, you can not try this.”

Regardless, many are doing simply that. In actual fact, a report variety of vacationers took to the skies this vacation season.

Regardless of recommendation from the CDC to remain residence, airports noticed greater than 1.1 million folks flying the day earlier than Christmas Eve. In line with TSA numbers, that is the very best quantity of vacationers since mid-March.

“That mess was full — prime to backside,” stated Gregory Reynolds who flew to Atlanta from Chicago. “There wasn’t an empty seat.”

The variety of Christmas Eve vacationers went down, with underneath 1 million catching a flight, in comparison with 2019 when greater than 2.5 million folks flew.

Dr. Willis says the various vacationers airports have already seen may imply dangerous information going ahead.

“You are going to have a spike of 5,000 deaths a day in January — I promise you, you may be at 5,000 deaths a day,” he alerted. “That is going to proceed till we let the virus die.”

Consultants say a rise in testing after Thanksgiving may be motive for the Christmas Eve spike.

This week alone, the state has been doing about 40,000 assessments per day — that is a few 24% enhance.

In case you’re touring again after the vacations, the CDC recommends you get examined 1 to three days earlier than your journey then once more three to five days afterwards.

“I am simply not goin to let that field me in and decide how I will reside my life,” stated traveler Gregory Reynolds when requested why he flew throughout a pandemic. “If I take correct precautions, I ought to be capable to act usually so long as I am carrying my masks.”