New chapter: Dougherty closes emergency operations center with decline in COVID cases

ALBANY — The regular local COVID-19 news conferences that have been live-streamed for more than a year have often been filled with rundowns of the number of hospitalizations and deaths and doctors relating their latest recommendations.

But at times the sessions, which initially garnered audiences of more than 10,000 people, were dramatic and memorable, such as when the coroner plopped a body bag on the podium or Albany’s mayor recounted the death of his father from the disease as he looked on helplessly.

The conferences, which were at first held daily but were scheduled less frequently as conditions improved in the community, are coming to a halt for now. The Dougherty County Commission also announced this week the closing of its emergency operations center, which had been up and running since the disease struck the county hard in March 2020.

Both decisions are subject to re-evaluation, and if COVID-19 numbers spike again, both could be reinstituted if necessary.

When he displayed the body bag for the cameras, Dougherty County Coroner Michael Fowler was making a point. Over the course of the pandemic, Fowler, whose office has handled more than 300 deaths related to the disease, has entered many of the residences where individuals died at home and tested for COVID-19 in any cases where it was suspected.

“The press conference where I laid the body bag up on the podium was my saying to people ‘It’s real and it’s serious,’” the coroner said. “A lot of my friends, family members and co-workers died of this. That’s why I felt like it was important to keep people informed.”

While April 2020 was the worst month for Dougherty County, a month during which there were 86 deaths of residents who tested positive for the novel coronavirus, Fowler was aware much earlier that things were taking a bad turn.

“The 15th of March was when we had three deaths and I realized how serious it was,” he said.

Over the next few weeks, the coroner’s office requested first a refrigerated truck and then an emergency morgue from the state as the number of deaths spiked. Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital also requested a morgue for COVID-19 cases, and both were located at the hospital’s north campus on Palmyra Road, where an emergency facility was set up to house the large number of patients sickened with the disease.

The coroner said the news conferences played an important role in keeping the public informed of conditions and how to protect themselves. Fowler, as did elected leaders and medical officials, often preached the mantra of wearing face masks and practicing hygiene and social distancing.

The conferences, which had as many as 10,000 watching in the early weeks when a local television station was airing them live, have dwindled to about 200 or 300 in recent weeks, Wendy Howell, Dougherty County’s public information officer, said.

The numbers cited by Howell do not include those who viewed the live stream on the city of Albany’s Facebook page.

The closing of the emergency operations center and ending the news conferences does not mean that everything is back to normal, officials warned. The county recommends that residents continue to take precautions and get vaccinated.

At the last news conference a couple of weeks ago, officials reported that only about 32 percent of residents had received at least one dose of a vaccine.

“This closure does not indicate that we are not maintaining a watchful eye on the impacts of COVID-19 in our region,” Dougherty County Commission Chairman Chris Cohilas said. “However, with the continuous decline of the number of positive cases in our area, we want to be mindful of our resources. At this time, we feel confident enough that we can close our EOC for COVID operations and suspend press conferences since information is just not changing enough to warrant keeping those open. We also want to urge citizens to continue to obtain the COVID-19 vaccinations and do their part to continue to keep us safe.”

The center’s hotline at (229) 302-1900 will remain open to answer residents’ questions about COVID-19.

When Albany Mayor Bo Dorough recounted his father’s death, it was an emotional time, and he was frustrated at the number of people not taking the disease seriously.

“When I spoke about my dad … a lot of things,” he said. “I was angry because this (COVID-19) was serious and they’re politicizing safety precautions — because I’d seen it.”

The Albany City Commission passed an ordinance requiring the wearing of face masks in September on a narrow 4-3 vote after hearing hours of arguments pro and con during virtual meetings over two days.

File Photo: Alan MauldinAlanMauldin[email protected]
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