COVID-19 still demands our attention, caution

This is driven by a series of viral variants in which COVID-19 remains ongoing and has demonstrated the ability to more easily and more easily circumvent the protection provided by the vaccine. Still, it should not be overlooked that the COVID vaccine continues to provide a strong shield against serious illness, hospitalization and death.

The story on the top page of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday was elegant with a concise summary of where we are. I will go here again.

This pattern is now very well known. Following a surge in cases and all the consequences, infections, hospitalizations and deaths are alleviated.

After that, the seesaw cycle is repeated.

And we are fed up with all that. There is a good reason.

Yet, our health and shared humanity require us to remain vigilant and vigilant. This is despite the fact that COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations are thankfully below the terrible peak seen over a year ago.

It should not be overlooked that COVID-19 continues to make many people sick. Healthcare professionals continue to feel the tension of full ER and hospital beds.

And while the virus now looks less deadly, it still dies.

It’s a frustrating time, as there have been so many breakthrough infections among those who believed that vaccination and boost immunization could completely protect themselves from the disease. I learned that it is not 100% possible.

Nevertheless, COVID-19 vaccination has been shown to significantly reduce the likelihood of serious illness requiring hospitalization. This is a place I dreamed of only in the earliest days of the worst of this deadly pandemic.

So our long-standing call for a complete vaccination of Georgians still makes sense. It is the best that each of us can do to protect ourselves and those around us. If necessary, call it Southern Hospitality with a medicine bottle. If you haven’t done so already, get the vaccine.

Approximately 57% of Georgians are fully vaccinated, and given the inherently stagnant immunization rates reflecting the declining demand due to skepticism, mutual safety as residents of the state. There is a long way to go to do everything you can to protect. Indifference, false information and other reasons.

Meanwhile, COVID remains stubbornly around us.

In the last seven days, which ended last Wednesday, the Georgia Department of Public Health reported 101 new confirmed deaths from a coronavirus infection. It may have died here so far and folds to a total of about 39,000 confirmed COVID-19.

According to a news article on Wednesday, this latest surge behaves differently. “Since it began in mid-April, it has risen slowly but mercilessly, and the plateau is invisible.” “I hope this isn’t new and normal,” said a doctor at the Grady Memorial Hospital interviewed.

Each of us must do everything we can to make sure that is not the case.

Being cautious in public is part of that.

Wide and sometimes controversial, the duty of masks is almost behind us. Even if masking becomes overly political, it does not prevent many of us from voluntarily doing what public health professionals say-especially appropriate and high on the go, especially in crowds and indoors. Wear a quality mask. Doing so will prevent further spread of the coronavirus infection.

None of these common sense public health precautions seem overly burdensome given where they are today.

It wasn’t when 86 of Georgia’s 159 counties reported high levels of COVID-19. And not when 1,306 people were hospitalized for coronavirus infection on Tuesday, but up from 1,200 a week ago.

We can still play their respective roles in controlling the spread of COVID-19.

And we should.

Doing so will benefit Georgian people, families and the economy.

Editorial board