GAINESVILLE, Ga. — Earlier this week, Gov. Brian Kemp said Hall County is one of Georgia's emerging COVID-19 hotspots. By Saturday, it had the fifth-highest number of confirmed cases in the state.
But at least one packed screening site in Gainesville is yielding quick results. Testing only takes about 3 minutes at the Allen Creek Soccer Complex in Gainesville, with results expected in 3 days. And, in Hall County, there’s a great need for testing.
Residents lined up an hour early at a Gainesville testing site on Saturday morning, waiting for a swab.
"For us, we're seeing the numbers go up. We're doing a lot more testing than we did initially," Dr. Pamela Logan said.
Dr. Logan is the District 2 director for the Georgia Department of Public Health.
Initially, public health officials were only able to test people under very restrictive guidelines. Now anybody who wants a test can get one.
"We're getting people with no symptoms at all and we also see people that do have symptoms," District 2 Director of Nursing Alan Satterfield said.
As of Saturday around noon, the Georgia Department of Public Health reports Hall County has 2,002 confirmed cases with 249 patients hospitalized and 28 deaths. The area's Hispanic population is one of the hardest hit.
“We can see households that have more than one family in that home," Northeast Georgia Health System’s Dr. Antonio Rios said.
Dr. Rios is a member of the local task force working on outreach to Hall County's Hispanic population. Rios said one contributing factor is that many Spanish speaking people are employed by the county's meat and poultry plants
“That's an assembly line production model; so, anytime you have that production model, you're standing next to someone else," he said.
The task force is calling for more remote local testing. But not everyone who tests positive needs to go to the hospital. The Northeast Georgia Hospital System reports an increased number of patients waiting on test results.
"Many workplaces are asking for their staff to have negative test results to be able to return to work,” Dr. Logan said. “Since the governor has opened up the state, it's important for people to get back to their jobs and back to productivity."
Testing will continue at the Allen Creek Complex several days a week.
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