How a small Georgia city became one of the worst coronavirus hotspots in the country 

The small city of Albany, Georgia, has become the fourth worst coronavirus hotspot by capita in the United States. 

The city, with a population of 77,000, had 967 confirmed cases as of Tuesday night. 

The number appears small when compared to the epicenter in New York City, where there are now over 74,000 cases, but with a significantly smaller population, Albany’s figures equal to 659 cases for every 100,000 of the population. 

Albany has seen its hospital overrun in recent weeks, where there were only 14 intensive care units available, as officials struggled to find the source of the outbreak. 

Phoebe Putney Hospital in Albany, Georgia. The city has one of the worst coronavirus cases by capita in the United States with early data revealing a fatality rate of seven percent

A patient is wheeled from Elmhurst Hospital Center’s emergency room in New York. Cases in Albany are not as high as it the epicenter but it is hitting the much smaller city as hard

It is now believed to have spread at two funerals in February and early March, one of which was attended by a coronavirus victim from outside the city. 

Georgia’s first death was recorded on March 12. The 67-year-old victim had visited Albany in February to attend the funeral of a man it was believed died of natural causes. 

According to the New York Times, the victim may have unknowingly spread the virus as he attended the funeral. It is not known how be became infected. 

It is feared coronavirus may have spread further after a second funeral service on March 7.  

‘It took one person, whoever that was, and there was no intent,’ Scott Steiner, chief executive of the Phoebe Putney Health System in Albany, told CNN. 

‘It shows this virus can quickly spread.’

The Martin Luther King Chapel in Albany where the state’s first coronavirus victim attended a funeral in February. It is feared he may have spread the virus while he was there

Albany, Georgia, where all non-essential businesses have been closed since March 23

The Martin Luther King Memorial Chapel funeral home was identified as a common factor in the coronavirus cases in the city after the pastor at the February funeral and others who attended tested positive. 

They were contacted on March 13 by health department officials, a days after the first victim’s death. 

 ‘Although we have been identified as a common factor in the tracking of the COVID-19 in Albany, know that we are operating within all regulatory safety or health guidelines,’ the company said. 

Outbreaks in less populous places such as Albany, are impacting communities on a much more severe level than more high-profile hotspots in the likes of San Francisco and Seattle, where deaths per capita are not as high. 

According to data from Dougherty County, where Albany is located, there have been 973 total cases in the country and 56 deaths. This amounts to a fatality rate of 5.7 percent for the county’s population, the majority of whom live in Albany.

The fatality rate has decreased from 7.65 percent on March 29.  

The death rate may seem higher because of a lack of testing for more minor cases of the virus, however, as areas outside of New York are not always testing to the same extent. 

Some areas outside of major cities may also be unaware of the extent of their own outbreak because testing is being conducted on lower levels than it is in cities already registered as a hotspot. 

In Albany, the increasing number of cases quickly overwhelmed the hospital. 

It went through six months’ worth of supplies in a week and all 14 intensive care beds were full after just two days. 

Deaths also began to spike at the start of April as the outbreak worsened. 

Georgia still has less than 100 deaths as of March 30 but the state’s death toll now stands at 348.  

‘The next day it’s when we began seeing people coming to our emergency room who were sick,’ Steiner told CNN. 

‘Two the first day, six the next day, eight the next day, and it just began to cascade from that point.’ 

The hospital was under such strain that, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, nurses were told to keep working even if they had tested positive for coronavirus.  

The federal response to the crisis was harshly criticized by the city’s Mayor Bo Dorough who claims that more was needed to help in cutting off the spread on a national level. 

‘I think that this crisis needs to be managed more decisively from a federal and state level,’ he told WABE, Atlanta’s public radio affiliate. 

‘I think we have, at a minimum, the whole country should be in a shelter-in-place position.

‘We’re trying to deal with the situation that was cast upon us, that no one expected and no one was prepared for,’ he said.

 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk