Despite the increasing number of cases in Georgia, the public health has been neglected with positive results. COVID-19

Atlanta (AP) — According to an analysis of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Georgia’s public health investigators show that as the number of COVID-19 cases in the state increases, the proportion of people who can become infected decreases. I will.

The newspaper found that contact tracers interviewed 37% of people diagnosed with COVID-19 between June 23 and July 8.

That’s bad news as confirmed virus cases continue to grow rapidly in Georgia. There are over 120,000 Mondays, an average increase of over 3,300 per day over the past week. This is the most rapid increase since respiratory illness arrived in Georgia. The number of deaths on Monday reached 3,026, increasing for the fourth consecutive day. A total of 2,600 people were infected with the virus on Monday, another record.

The virus continues to affect the state as a whole, and Richmond County schools have given up on their long-delayed high school graduation program and are setting up drive-through diploma pickups in Augusta instead. North Point Community Church, a megachurch in the Atlanta area, has announced that it will not resume face-to-face service on six campuses this year. The clerk’s office in Gwynet County was closed for two weeks after the clerk tested positive.

The number of coronavirus infections in Georgia may be so high that it may be impossible to keep up, said Dr. Harry Hayman, a public health professor at Georgia State University.

“There is no way to implement a containment strategy when this kind of community expansion is occurring,” Hayman said.

Georgia reported 117,000 infections and 3,001 COVID-19 deaths as of Sunday. The number of hospitalized patients on Sunday exceeded 2,500.

Contact tracers try to interview people with respiratory illness and ask who they are in close contact with. The investigator will then contact these close contacts and warn them to seek self-quarantine or testing. The idea is to control the chain of infection and prevent the spread of cases.

The State Department of Health states that as of 1 July, 1,225 contact tracers were above the 1,000-person goal set by public health commissioner Kathleen Tommy.

“With thousands of cases of COVID-19 increasing every day, it’s becoming harder to keep track of contacts,” Toomey said in a statement. From a commercial lab that was recently backed up due to the large amount of testing. By the time the test results come out, many contacts are out of risk. “

State officials have also expressed concern that people are not responding to calls from contact tracers. Because they don’t know who is calling, they pretend to be contact tracers where some people try to steal personal information.

“In some cases, when contacts actually try to identify themselves, they even hang up at the contact tracer,” said Dr. Otto J. Ike, a leading epidemiologist at DeKalb County Board of Health. States.

Public health authorities have emphasized not collecting social security numbers, immigration status, or Bluetooth data. However, tracers sometimes need to call or send letters repeatedly. Health care workers in Georgia have avoided direct visits, a method used to track contact with other illnesses. Although people are obliged to cooperate legally, authorities have also avoided legal threats.

Toomey said the authorities reserve the right to issue subpoenas or citations, but would like to avoid those steps.

One case where people did not immediately cooperate included an outbreak among recent graduates of the Labette School when some parents and schools did not immediately respond to inquiries.

Dr. Lymphxton of the Fulton County Health Commission said: