Canceling the game : Rebels vs. Bobcats
Community, News, Rebel's Corner September 14, 2020
Blue Ridge, Ga. – A call was made to cancel a very anticipated game last week between football rivals the Fannin County Rebels and the Gilmer County Bobcats.
The decision was made over an individual’s possible exposure to and contraction of Covid-19.
Questions arose among Rebel fans and some parents reached out to FYN not satisfied with the explanation they had been given. All wanted to know what the Fannin County School District’s protocol is to make this decision and who ultimately decides.
Documentation provided by the Fannin County School System confirms that an individual with ties to the football team had come in contact with at least 2 persons who recently tested positive for Covid-19. This documentation goes on to say that the individual in question is “symptomatic”.
Fannin County School System’s latest Covid-19 update on Friday, Sept. 11.
Sources tell FYN that while the individual was tested for Covid-19, no confirmation was ever received as to whether the person had tested positive.
Fannin County Director of Applied & Integrated Instruction, Lucas Roof, explained that due to medical privacy laws students are not required to produce any documentation to the school system that they have been tested and received a positive result for Covid-19.
When direct documentation is unavailable, Roof explained that verification comes in one of two ways. Either contact from the school system is made to the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) for confirmation on cases, or if DPH receives a case that they determine to be a possible student of Fannin County, they will contact the school system.
“It really is a two way street as far as communication,” Roof said of DPH and the school system’s relationship.
DPH also will treat cases as “considered positive” when indications lead to a strong likelihood of an individual having contracted the virus.
Due to medical privacy, the Fannin County School System could not confirm whether the individual relating to the football game had received a positive test result.
Assistant Superintendent of Personnel & Administration, Robert Ensley, explained that the school system, upon learning of the possibility of a positive case, contacted the local branch of the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) to seek recommendations.
DPH and Roof discussed the situation facing the Fannin County Rebels and based on information received, DPH gave guidelines to the school district.
While Roof has been tasked with the Covid-19 coordination of the district, the cancellation of the game came down to a school level decision.
After receiving guidelines from DPH, Fannin County High School Principal, Assistant Principal, Athletic Director and Coach met to go over options and concluded that with DPH recommendations it was in the best interest to cancel.
Roof confirmed the DPH recommendations on Thursday, Sept. 10 after questions arose from parents concerning the decision.
Dr. Zachary Taylor, Director of the North Georgia Health District wrote an email to Roof stating:
“Lucas, this email is to let you know that we consider the young man who is symptomatic and is an epidemiological link to 2 cases to be a case of COVId-19 and that all of his contacts on the football team should be quarantined. Please contact me if you have any questions.”
Confirmation received from DPH of guidelines relating to the athletics Covid-19 case.
The school system was also unable, due to privacy laws, to confirm with FYN if any players had to be quarantined after coming in contact with this particular case. Several parents of athletes, however, spoke with FYN and did confirm that their child had been sent home and would not be able to return to school until Thursday, Sept. 17.
Numbers on the school system’s website, updated every Friday morning, did show a significant rise in the number of students quarantined as of Sept. 11.
“These decisions are never made lightly,” Fannin County Superintendent Dr. Michael Gwatney stated and added, “Our team is making the best possible decisions based on the information we have and the recommendations we receive.”
Gwatney confirmed that the protocol that was followed concerning the Fannin-Gilmer game would be the same for any future school related events, not just limited to athletics. The school system will seek the advice of medical professionals and follow the recommendations given at the time.
Gwatney explained that guidelines given to the district are fluid as more becomes known about the virus, “Covid-19 is information ever evolving and we have to work with the latest details when situations arise. The well being of our students and our community as a whole is always a top priority.”
Featured Image : Fannin Rebels and Gilmer Bobcats face-off in 2019.
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Update: Two deaths, 157 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Fannin County
Community, News March 24, 2020
Blue Ridge, Ga. – The Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) is reporting that there have been 157 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Fannin County. This information comes from the DPH Thursday, July 16 report at 7:oo p.m. DPH is also reporting that 12 of these cases have required hospitalizations.
The latest DPH report is also confirming a second Covid-19 related death for a Fannin County resident.
The total number of 157 confirmed positive cases for the county is a cumulative number and includes cases dating back to March. DPH is not reporting the number of recoveries due to the inefficiency in tracking cases. Instead of recording recoveries, many states are reporting “known outcomes”. These cases are where a patient required hospitalization. In these cases, it is observable to medical to staff whether or not the patient recovered.
Fannin County has seen a spike in the recent number of cases over the last couple of weeks, with cases jumping by sometimes 20 in a single day. This is due to the virus seeing a resurgence in spread and also due to the availability of testing ,with more people getting tested.
At this time, Fetch Your News does not have any additional details about these cases. We will bring you updates as soon as information is available for the public.
The total cumulative number of cases in Georgia as of the July 16, 7:00 p.m. update is now total number of confirmed cases 135,183 with 14,647 hospitalized (2,781 ICU Admissions), and 3,132 deaths. 1,198,678 tests have been administered in Georgia.
Timeline of First 35 Confirmed Cases in Fannin County:
- First Case – March 24, 7:00 p.m. DPH update
- Second Case – March 27, 12:00 p.m. DPH update
- Third Case – March 27, 7:00 p.m. DPH update
- Fourth Case – March 31, 12:00 p.m. DPH update
- Fifth Case – April 1, 12:00 p.m. DPH update
- Sixth Case – April 1, 7:00 p.m. DPH update
- Seventh and Eighth Cases – April 2, 7:00 p.m. DPH update
- Ninth Case – April 6, 12:00 p.m. DPH update
- Tenth, Eleventh, Twelfth Cases – April 13, 7:00 p.m. DPH update
- Thirteenth Case – April 14, 12:00 p.m. DPH update
- Fourteenth Case – April 15, 12:00 p.m. DPH update
- Fifteenth Case – April 17, 7:00 p.m. DPH update
- Sixteenth Case – April 19, 12:00 p.m. DPH update
- Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Cases – April 20, 7:00 p.m. DPH update
- First Death Reported – April 20, 7:00 p.m. DPH Update
- ***April 22, 12:00 p.m. DPH update; DPH rescinded the death reported on April 20 bringing Fannin’s count back to zero deaths. Also rescinded was the additional case reported on April 20, bringing Fannin’s total confirmed cases back to 18.
- Nineteenth and Twentieth cases – April 22, 7:00 p.m. DPH update
- Twenty-first case – April 24, 7:00 p.m. DPH update
- Twenty-second and Twenty-third cases – April 26, 7:00 p.m. DPH update
- Twenty-fourth case – April 27, 7:00 p.m. DPH update
- Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth cases – April 28, 6:00 p.m. DPH update
- First Death Reported – April 28, 6:00 p.m. DPH update
- Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth cases – April 29, 7:00 p.m. DPH update
- Twenty-ninth case – April 30, 6:40 p.m. DPH update
- Thirtieth case – May 1, 6:25 p.m. DPH update
- Thirty-first case – May 2, 6:25 p.m. DPH update
- Thirty-second case – May 5, 6:25 p.m. DPH update
- Thirty-third case – May 6, 6:25 p.m. DPH update
- Thirty-fourth case – May 7, 6:25 p.m. DPH update
- Thirty-fifth case – May 12, 7:00 p.m. DPH update
*Fetch Your News has chosen to report on cases confirmed by the Georgia Department of Health (DPH) only. These reports may not reflect real-time spread as the laboratories processing COVID-19 tests are reportedly backlogged by several days. Fetch Your News is also reaching out to local sources to confirm positive cases before writing articles on the subject.
Inconsistency in data being reported:
The Georgia Department of Health originally reported one death in Fannin County due to Covid-19 in their April 20, 7:00 p.m. update. This update listed the victim as a 74 year old male with underlying health conditions.
DPH also reported a 19 confirmed case of Covid-19 in Fannin County.
In their April 22, 12:00 p.m. update, DPH rescinded both the reported death and additional case. This brings Fannin County total cases to 18 with zero deaths from Covid-19.
This is not the first time that there have been discrepancies in DPH reporting for Fannin County. DPH had reported a 10th case earlier in April, but then later rescinded this case bring the total back down to 9.
First Case in Fannin County Original Story Below:
The Georgia Department of Public Health confirmed on Tuesday, March 24 in their 7:00 p.m. update, that Fannin County has recorded its first confirmed case of Coronavirus (Covid-19).
While there have been several suspected cases in Fannin County, until today all tests had come back negative.
The first confirmed cases of Coronavirus in Georgia was announced by state officials on March 2. These cases were of a Fulton man in his 50’s that had recently returned from a work trip in Milan, and his 15-year-old son.
Georgia’s total number of positive cases confirmed by DPH as of 7:00 p.m. on March 24, has risen to 1097.
At this time DPH has noted 38 deaths related to Covid-19 in Georgia.
Neighboring counties are reporting zero cases in Gilmer County and zero cases in Union County.
DPH updates the list of confirmed cases in Georgia at noon and 7 p.m. each day. The numbers are expected to increase as more testing becomes available to the public.
FYN will bring you more details as they become available.
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Georgia DPH adjusts COVID-19 models to include asymptomatic transmission
News, Police & Government, State & National April 1, 2020
BLAIRSVILLE, Ga – As of April 1, Georgia had 4,748 cases and 20,328 completed COVID-19 tests, but Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) has only tested symptomatic and high-risk patients. As a result, some cases have gone undiagnosed across Georgia.
Currently, DPH is following CDC guidelines, which still states online that not everyone needs to be tested for COVID-19. Most people who contract the virus will recover and can care for themselves at home. CDC gave healthcare workers four priority categories to help decide who receives tests.
Asymptomatic individuals were ranked last, and those exhibiting mild symptoms or subjected to potential community spread should only be tested if resources are available.
White County Public Safety Director David Murphy went on record about the issue.
“Some people take care of themselves at home and never go to a doctor, especially those who have minor symptoms,” he explained. Murphy added that White County first responders have encountered a dozen or more patients with coronavirus symptoms in the last two weeks.
DPH guidance for healthcare facilities when it comes to testing lower priority potential cases is as follows:
Patients with mild illness who do not require medical care or who are not a DIRECT contact of a confirmed COVID-19 case (meaning the person has NOT been within 6 feet of a confirmed case for greater than 10 minutes, will not meet criteria to be tested at GPHL but can be tested at commercial labs—see below:
These patients should self-isolate at home until symptoms resolve. If respiratory symptoms worsen, they may need to be re-evaluated. Guidance for safe home care can be found at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/guidance-homecare.html.
If you want to test these patients for COVID-19, commercial laboratory testing is the best option. Commercial laboratories are expected to conduct a substantial number of COVID-19 tests going forward. Currently, the primary source of testing is LabCorp, but we expect other laboratories will be testing in the near future as well, including Quest and ARUP. Neither LabCorp nor Quest will collect specimens at their facilities. Providers should contact LabCorp or Quest regarding supplies needed for testing.
DPH Commissioner Kathleen Toomey addressed that asymptomatic individuals in Georgia aren’t being tested but could be transmitting the virus to numerous Georgians. The state and DPH now believe the time is now appropriate to take “very aggressive measures.”
“We have not been testing everybody. We have only been testing those who have symptoms and those who are the most ill. And now, we recognize a game-changer, in how our strategy to fight COVID has unfolded. We realize now that individuals may be spreading the virus and not even realize they have an infection. As many as 1 in 4 people with coronavirus don’t realize they have the infection because they have no symptoms whatsoever,” explained Toomey.
“Finding out that this virus is now transmitting before they see signs,” remarked Gov. Brian Kemp. “Those individuals could have been infecting people before they ever felt bad.”
Kemp is expected to sign a shelter in place order on Thursday, April 2 to prevent people from ignoring self-quarantine recommendations. The details on the order are yet to be released.
Toomey further voiced that they knew asymptomatic community spread was possible due to the cruise ship cases. As of March 4, the CDC website also stated that asymptomatic spread is possible, but not as common as among individuals who are visibly sick.
Until the past 24-hours, all the DPH models relied on data solely from patients with symptoms.
“I think it’s a combination of recognizing not only that there are probably a large number of people out there who are infected who are asymptomatic, who never would have been recognized under our old models, but also seeing the community transmission that we’re seeing and now is the time to stop that transmission before the hospitals are overrun,” said Toomey.
How can Georgians prevent exposure/slow the spread?
Follow the CDC guidelines:
- Wash hands for at least 20 seconds – wash often
- Regularly clean and disinfect surfaces
- Avoid social contact and stay home
- Social distance if in public – stay six feet apart from each other
- Avoid touching the face – mouth, nose, eyes
- If sick, stay home
- Cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue and throw it away
- Wear a facemask if sick
By following these guidelines and Kemp’s shelter-in-place order, Georgian’s should be able to flatten the curve and hopefully protect themselves and loved ones.