Dougherty’s race against coronavirus is a ‘marathon, not a sprint’

ALBANY — The reality that COVID-19 isn’t going to go away one day, “like a miracle,” and won’t be at zero cases any time soon is perhaps nowhere more evident than in Albany, where five dozen people are in the fight for their lives on ventilators.

Dougherty County is at ground zero for COVID-19, but a large part of the region surrounding it is part of a huge chunk of the state that is seeing levels of the disease that are the highest in the state and nation.

Even as there is talk at the national level of “reopening” the economy, local elected officials don’t know when and how the goal of reducing the toll in suffering and death and reopening businesses will play out.

Dougherty County, where deaths have reached nearly 100, has been identified as one of the biggest hot spots for the coronavirus in the world.

But the reach extends outward to most of southwest Georgia and beyond, with rural Randolph County now showing 144 confirmed cases. That number is equivalent to 2,066.2 cases per 100,000 population — the highest rate in the state.

Returning from the current reality to normal — or a new normal — could take months, Dougherty County Commission Chairman Chris Cohilas said.

“I want to stress, this is a marathon and not a sprint,” Cohilas said during a Friday news conference attended by other government and health community leaders. “That’s something we have to accept, that this is a test of endurance and discipline.”

One certainty is that there is no light switch that will be flipped and the nightmare ends, Mayor Bo Dorough said.

“If you immediately (stop) shelter in place, you have a bunch of infected people go out and infect a whole bunch of other people immediately,” Cohilas said. “And what does that do? We know our hospital is already strained. We know that we have more than 60 people on respirators at the hospital.”

As of Saturday afternoon, there were 91 confirmed deaths of Dougherty County residents who have tested positive for the coronavirus, and an additional four suspected cases for which Coroner Michael Fowler said he was awaiting test results.

As of Friday, the Phoebe Putney Health System reported that there have been 2,030 positive tests for the coronavirus at its facilities in Albany, Americus and Sylvester and that 3,641 had tested negative. There had been 66 deaths at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, 12 at Phoebe Sumter Medical Center and three at Phoebe Worth Medical Center.

Fowler’s numbers include Dougherty County residents who died at the hospital in Albany and those at a residence or a medical facilities in other counties.

Nearly 80 percent of patients who have been placed on mechanical devices to assist with breathing have died, according to hospital officials. That staggering figure emphasizes the need to continue to follow recommendations to shelter in place and remain at home unless engaged in necessary business such as purchasing food and medicine, Cohilas said.

Phoebe has reported that the number of new COVID-19 patients entering the hospital has declined slightly in recent days. However, intensive care beds have been filled for several weeks with critically ill patients.

Ending the measures that have led to that decline would have catastrophic results, Cohlas said.

“We cannot afford to let up, because if we do, here is the reality: If we go back to business as usual, if we start relaxing for one second, the number of cases is going to spike, the hospital is going to be overrun, there’s not going to be enough resources to take care of the people that are there and more people will die,” he said. “That’s the reality. We have to accept that reality to shape our destiny as a community.”

Staff Photo: Alan Mauldin
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