Novel coronavirus cases are still rising in Hart County, but hope for a vaccine is on the horizon.
The number of new cases in the past two weeks in Hart County hit 101 on Friday, according to the Department of Public Health, which is the largest amount of new cases in a two-week period Hart County has seen yet.
In total, as of Friday afternoon, Hart County has seen 783 cases of the virus and 20 confirmed deaths since the DPH began reporting the data in March. There are also nine deaths listed as "probable" COVID-19 deaths in Hart County.
The biggest single-day total of new confirmed cases was reported Friday, Dec. 4 with 23 new COVID-19 infections added to Hart County's count on Friday alone.
Hospitals in the Athens region, which includes Hart County and hospitals in several surrounding counties, are at 98 percent capacity for ICU beds as of Friday afternoon, according to the DPH.
Hart County is once again considered a “high transmission” county by the DPH, along with other parts of Northeast Georgia such as Franklin, Banks, Elbert, Jackson and Oglethorpe counties.
While county numbers increased, local school-system infections decreased this week coming off of the Thanksgiving holiday. Three students and five employees in the school system are infected with the virus as of Monday, while 26 students and six employees are quarantined for possible exposure as of Monday.
The testing percent positivity rate, which can indicate the level of community spread, was 14.2 percent between Nov. 21 and Nov. 27, which is a decrease of more than one percent from the previous week.
But new hope for a vaccine to be rolled out as early as mid-December emerged this week as the state is gearing up to distribute the first doses of COVID-19 vaccines to healthcare workers and the state’s elderly residents in the coming weeks once federal officials approve the vaccines for emergency use.
Kemp said Monday he expects healthcare workers and nursing home residents in the state to start receiving vaccines in the second or third week of December, noting several state agencies have been preparing to move quickly on distribution as soon as the initial vaccine shipments arrive.
“Obviously, that timeline could change, but that is what we’re shooting for right now,” Kemp said at a meeting with local nursing home administrators.
Kemp also relaxed certain red-tape state rules Monday to allow nurses and pharmacists to administer the new COVID-19 vaccines and to let people receive the vaccines in their vehicles via drive-thru services.
Two vaccines from pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna showed unexpectedly good results in recent clinical trials and are now poised for emergency-use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Between 30 million and 40 million vaccine doses could be available by January with emergency federal approval, said Dr. Carlos del Rio, a leading Emory University epidemiologist who has focused on the virus since its onset in March.
The general public should expect to have access to COVID-19 vaccines sometime between May and July of 2021 after officials have prioritized more vulnerable populations, he said.
“The most important thing is we need to allocate the vaccine in such a way that we rapidly bring down mortality and hospitalizations from this disease,” Del Rio said at a news conference Monday.
Beau Evans of Capitol Beat News Service contributed to this report.