Like the rest of Athens, the health care industry is opening up after the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
[…] But it’s not business as usual and won’t look the same again, say healthcare authorities.
“The impact of COVID-19 will be with us far into the future, and we won’t be returning to a pre-COVID-19 normal,” said Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center CEO Michael Burnett. “Instead, we’ll bring with us the guidelines, such as isolating ourselves when sick, screening for illness at our entrances, wearing appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE), maintaining social distancing and diligently washing our hands,” he said, referring to practices that helped limit the spread of COVID-19 and slow spread of any communicable disease.
[…] In the near term, Georgia also faces a steep rise in the number of people without health insurance because of the state’s steep rise in unemployment, said Laura Harker, senior policy analyst at the nonpartisan Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, an Atlanta-based nonpartisan think tank.
