Should you be worried about the new COVID-19 variant? Local health officials share evidence and thoughts Lead microbiologist Maureen Clancy prepares to insert COVID-19 sample into a testing machine Friday, Jan. 22, 2021, at the Northeast Georgia Medical Center. - photo by Scott Rogers
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Officials from Northeast Georgia Health System and District 2 Public Health will participate in a webinar Wednesday, Jan. 20, hosted by the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce to discuss the COVID-19 vaccine.
How funeral homes, coroner have adjusted with increased COVID-19 cases The outside of a cooler is shown Jan. 14, 2021, at a Gainesville crematory. Local health officials and funeral authorities have seen an increase in COVID-related deaths in recent weeks.
Though under control right now, Hall County Coroner Marion Merck said he has been working on plans in recent weeks to expand the county’s ability to store the dead amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Families are making fast decisions on the type of services they want,” Merck said. “We’re not having to delay anything on that, so we’re staying up with it pretty well now. I’m very much concerned about the future, that’s no doubt.”
70-year-old Urvashi Patel received her first COVID-19 vaccination at Longstreet Clinic on Jan. 13. (Photo: Tara Brolley)
COVID-19 vaccine distribution continues in Gainesville for those over 65 as healthcare workers at Longstreet Clinic wrap up day one of their vaccine clinic.
The process went smoothly, according to Mimi Collins, CEO of Longstreet Clinic. Patients that have been registered for an appointment checked in at the front desk, filled out paperwork and then made their way to the pharmacy, where blue curtains formed small rooms for patients to receive their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Urvashi Patel, age 70, received the vaccine and said she felt much better and could not wait to receive the second dose.
Assistant News Director
A New Year s Eve party inside this building in the New Holland community took a deadly turn when a man shot and wounded his wife and a co-worker and then turned the gun on himself. The man s death was one of five in the Gainesville-Hall County area related to domestic violence since Dec. 11, 2020. (Photo: Alyson Shields)
Since early December 2020, five people have died in domestic violence incidents in the Gainesville area, and the violence has raised alarms for law enforcement and victim advocates.
In an crime that remains under investigation by the Hall County Sheriff s Office, two children were stabbed to death in a residence on Crescent Drive on Dec. 11, 2020, allegedly at the hands of their mother. Early on the morning of New Year s Day, Hall County and Gainesville law enforcement officers were called to investigate a crime on Spring Street in New Holland where a Gainesville man shot and critically wounded his wife and one of her co-workers at a hol