GA Coronavirus: It's Time To Mandate Masks, Says Emory Expert

ATLANTA, GA — With COVID-19 infection rates accelerating and winter approaching, an infectious-disease expert from Emory University says it’s finally time for a mask mandate.

“A mask is a public-health intervention,” Dr. Carlos Del Rio, executive associate dean of Emory University’s School of Medicine, said Thursday to Atlanta news station WGCL-TV. “We need to avoid crowded places."

While Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has promoted the face coverings as a way to slow spread of the coronavirus, he’s consistently refused to mandate their use. And on Friday, U.S. Rep.-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia’s 14th congressional district openly mocked masks as “oppressive,” refusing to wear one during freshman orientation.

“Unfortunately, we have a leadership vacuum,” Del Rio said to WGCL-TV. “There’s no one at a high level talking about this, saying what to do. It’s allowing the pandemic to progress without anyone taking charge.”

Del Rio said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should be more involved in dealing with the pandemic and that daily press briefings should be given.

He also noted that most new coronavirus infections were linked to people entering restaurants, bars and other group gathering places.

“It’s pretty clear, a lot of people are getting infected when they are in restaurants and bars,” said Del Rio, who is a distinguished professor specializing in infectious diseases at Emory. “If the place is too small and not well ventilated, then we need to close it.”

Greene, who holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Georgia, tweeted Friday that “In GA, we work out, shop, go to restaurants, go to work, and school without masks." She later gloated on Twitter over having “triggered” reporters on CNN.

"It's not the economy versus public health,” Del Rio said to WGCL-TV “If we slow the spread of the virus, we will be able to open the economy. In fact, public health will be the key to keeping the economy open."

GEORGIA CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS FOR NOV. 13, 2020

The Georgia Department of Public Health in Atlanta reported a total of 382,505 confirmed cases of COVID-19 at 2:50 p.m. Friday, Nov. 13. According to the health department’s website, that includes 2,383 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 over the last 24 hours. In addition, Georgia reported 743 new antigen-positive cases over the last 24 hours, which are considered to be probable cases of COVID-19.

Georgia has reported 8,418 deaths so far from COVID-19, with 22 more deaths recorded in the last 24 hours. Georgia also reported 487 “probable” deaths since the pandemic started from COVID-19. These probable deaths include fatalities with indirect evidence of COVID-19.

Georgia reported 33,089 hospitalizations — 142 more than the day before — and 6,211 admissions so far to intensive-care units. The percentage of ICU beds in use statewide stayed steady at 83.5 percent of capacity, but not all of these beds are being used by COVID-19 patients. Almost 800 ventilators are being used, which is about 28 percent of total capacity.

No information is available from Georgia about how many patients have recovered.

Counties in or near metro Atlanta and other metropolitan areas continue to have the highest number of positives, with Fulton County still in the lead.

1. Fulton County: 33,550 cases — 215 new
2. Gwinnett County: 33,088 cases — 228 new
3. Cobb County: 23,656 cases — 109 new
4. DeKalb County: 23,267 cases — 155 new
5. Hall County: 11,392 cases — 31 new
6. Chatham County: 9,934 — 45 new
7. Clayton County: 8,988 — 38 new
8. Richmond County: 8,680 — 56 new
9. Cherokee County: 7,988 — 75 new
10. Bibb County: 6,947 — 31 new

Counties in or near metro Atlanta also continue to have the most deaths from COVID-19.

1. Fulton County: 649 deaths
2. Cobb County: 480 deaths — 1 new
3. Gwinnett County: 472 deaths
4. DeKalb County: 423 deaths — 2 new
5. Bibb County: 212 deaths
6. Chatham County: 198 deaths
7. Dougherty County: 196 deaths — 1 new
8. Richmond County: 192 deaths
9. Hall County: 188 deaths
10. Clayton County: 187 deaths

All Georgia statistics are available on the state's COVID-19 website.

Globally, more than 53.1 million people have tested positive for COVID-19, and more than 1.31 million people have died from it, Johns Hopkins University reported Friday.

In the United States, more than 10.6 million people have been infected and more than 243,000 people have died from COVID-19 as of Friday. The U.S. has only about 4 percent of the world's population but more confirmed cases and deaths than any other country.

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