January 20, 2021 Update

Vaccine Appointments at Northeast Health District

There are two ways to make an appointment at a Northeast Health District clinic:

1. Visit the Northeast Health District vaccination website (https://bit.ly/NEHDCOVIDVaccine) and fill out a registration form (direct link to form)

After you have submitted the registration form, the Northeast Health District will contact you to make an appointment if you are a member of one of the eligible priority groups.
Information on which groups are eligible can also be found at the link above.
There may be several days between when you submit the form and when you are contacted

2. Call the Northeast Health District vaccine scheduling hotline at 706-340-0996

Assistance available Monday - Friday: 8:00 AM - 7:00 PM & Saturday: 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Spanish assistance is available Monday - Friday: 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Please be aware that due to high call volumes, hold times may be long.

You cannot make an appointment by calling or visiting a health department in the Northeast Health District.

Private providers who are administering vaccines will handle their own scheduling.

DPH Statewide Vaccine Locator + Kroger / Publix Locations

The Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) has launched a COVID vaccine locator on the DPH website at https://dph.georgia.gov.

The tool allows users to search by county (use Clarke for Athens-Clarke County) for a vaccine provider in their community, and provides location and contact information for the provider. This is not a centralized scheduling tool.

County health departments and private providers are included in the locator. Additional locations statewide will be added when providers are ready to safely administer vaccine, and as vaccine supply allows.

All health departments and most other providers require appointments for vaccine administration. Because vaccine supply is limited, providers may not have immediate appointments available.

Kroger Health and Publix locations around the state are also providing some COVID vaccinations by appointment. Appointments are limited and only for those who fall into the current 1A+ Tier. Links to the Kroger Health and Publix sites are available at dph.georgia.gov or through the vaccine page at www.accgov.com/coronavirus.

Transit Remains Fare-Free through June 30, 2021

At their Regular Session meeting on January 6, 2021, the Athens-Clarke County Mayor and Commission unanimously agreed to continue fare-free transit for passengers through June 30, 2021, the end of the current fiscal year. In response to the coronavirus pandemic and with support from the federal CARES Act, Transit did not charge fares for most of 2020.

Transit continues to operate under reduced service levels, including ending all bus service by 7:00 PM or earlier, suspending routes 23 and 28, and limiting routes 12 and 14 to hourly service. Ridership will continue to be monitored closely by Transit staff. Recommendations to return services to regular service levels will be made proportionally as ridership and transit service demands change.

Face masks are required for all Transit passengers. Transit buses continue to be sanitized frequently, while hand sanitizer is also available on all buses.

Routes, timetables, live bus tracking, and trip planning are available at www.accgov.com/transit and through the myStop app available on the Google Play and Apple App stores.

For more information, call ACC Transit at 706-613-3430.

Georgia Responds Seeks Medical & Nonmedical Volunteers for COVID-19 Response

Georgia Responds is Georgia’s health and medical volunteer program that matches the skills and credentials of medical and nonmedical volunteers to help stop the spread of COVID-19 in Georgia.

Licensed medical volunteers including doctors, nurses, pharmacists and advanced EMS personnel (EMT Intermediate and above) may be used to administer vaccination.

Nonmedical volunteers may be used in administrative roles such as registering individuals for vaccination, data input, language interpretation, other administrative areas as needed, and providing guidance and assistance at vaccination administration sites.

To volunteer, log on to https://dph.georgia.gov/georgia-responds and click on the “Register Now” box. Registering only takes a few minutes.

Prospective volunteers will be asked for their name, address, contact information and occupation type. In order to be eligible for some assignments, responders are encouraged to complete a profile summary, which includes skills and certifications, training, medical history, emergency contact and deployment preferences.

Once your skills and credentials are reviewed, you will be notified by a DPH representative.

Georgia Department of Public Health Daily Status Report

Jan. 20 Case Update for Athens-Clarke County

The Wednesday, January 20 update shows an increase of 502 positive cases and 7 deaths since Wednesday, January 13.

Cumulative case counts from February are no longer being displayed on the graphic. For reference, here are the cumulative numbers from the beginning of each month:

January 1, 2021 - 8,580
December 1 - 6,732
November 1 - 5,872
October 1 - 5,121
September 1 - 3,082
August 1 - 1,694
July 1 - 574
June 1 - 293
May 1 - 155
April 1 - 54
March 1 - 4

The Daily Status Report is now updated once daily at 3:00 p.m. to allow time to process and validate laboratory and case reports. The Daily Status Report is available at https://dph.georgia.gov/covid-19-daily-status-report.

Northeast Health District Weekly Report - January 18

The Georgia Department of Public Health's (DPH) Northeast Health District produces a weekly COVID-19 testing report for the 10-county district that covers Athens-Clarke, Barrow, Elbert, Greene, Jackson, Madison, Morgan, Oconee, Oglethorpe, and Walton counties.

Athens-Clarke County's page of the report is shown in the first of the two charts below, while the second one shows the previous week's report for comparison purposes.

Current and Previous Week's Reports

Georgia Department of Public Health Northeast Health District Weekly Report

Northeast Health District County Report - Athens-Clarke County - Jan. 11

The newest weekly report for Jan. 18 was released on Wed., Jan. 20.

The report includes county-by-county information about:

Total number of PCR tests performed by all providers reported to DPH
Percent of total tested with positive results
Positive cases per 100,000 total population
Cumulative number hospitalized
Percent of positive cases requiring hospitalization
Cumulative deaths
Percent of positive cases who died
Deaths per 100,000 total population
Positive cases by race/ethnicity and age (from tests performed by the Northeast Health District only - does not include other providers)

While reports are dated on Monday and use data for the previous week, the reports will usually be posted on Wednesday due to the time required to assemble and confirm the report.

The report is available each week at: publichealthathens.com/wp/programs/infectious-disease/coronavirus-covid-19-information/athens-district-covid-data/

Positive UGA COVID-19 Tests Reported Through DawgCheck - Not Available This Week

The University of Georgia DawgCheck tool gives members of the campus community the ability to self-monitor and to facilitate information sharing internally and with the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH). Any student or employee with a positive COVID-19 test is required to report the test in DawgCheck.

Updated information was not available for the Jan. 12-18 week at the time of this week's newsletter publication.

Check https://uhs.uga.edu/healthtopics/covid-19-health-and-exposure-updates for updates.

Frequency of Updates

This coronavirus email / text update is sent weekly during normal weeks, usually on Wednesdays, with other updates as necessary with important information.

Questions can still be directed to www.accgov.com/coronavirus, which will be updated regularly, the info line at 706-613-3333, or coronavirus@accgov.com.