Albany, Georgia, has the highest per capita rate of coronavirus cases in the state, and one of the highest in the country and the world, according to Public Health Commissioner Kathleen Toomey.
Dougherty County has the second-highest number of cases in Georgia, behind Fulton County in metro Atlanta. Phoebe Putney, Albany’s major hospital, now has four coronavirus intensive care units open, and the Georgia National Guard has been deployed to help support the hospital’s health care workers.
WABE spoke with Albany Mayor Bo Dorough about the crisis in his community Wednesday.
On how he has governed a city going through this crisis:
Well, we’re trying to deal with the situation that was cast upon us, that no one expected and no one was prepared for. And we’re just doing the best we can. We initially enacted an executive order, which closed bars, nightclubs, gyms, restaurants to in-house dining. We instructed houses of worship that they should not proceed with services.
And within a couple of days, the staff at Phoebe Putney [Hospital] informed us that we needed to take more aggressive action because they were what they called approaching capacity. And in layman’s terms, that meant we’re not going to have enough beds for the patients who are being admitted to the hospital.
On the need to ramp up enforcement of the shelter-in-place order:
We’ve got eight officers who have tested positive. We were short-staffed in our police department prior to the onslaught of the virus. And this compounds our ability to enforce the executive order. There has been some discussion about implementing a curfew. Some counties around us have actually adopted a curfew for the foreseeable future. And the reason for that, according to the police chief, would be that we’re just going to decrease traffic at night and that will alleviate some of the pressures on the police department at this time.
Do you feel like you’re getting the help that you need from the state and the federal government right now?:
Editor’s note: this interview took place a few hours before Gov. Brian Kemp issued a statewide shelter-in-place order to be in effect April 3 to 13.
Yes, in the sense that the governor has been very responsive to the situation here in Albany. But no, in the sense that I think that this crisis needs to be managed more decisively from a federal and state level. I think we have, at a minimum, the whole country should be in a shelter-in-place position. All the experts are telling us the social distancing is the primary way to staunch the spread of the virus. And I’m afraid that communities that feel like, “Oh, we don’t have any confirmed cases in our county, so we don’t need to do anything.” Well, what people don’t understand is what we have learned … once people start being diagnosed, it’s really too late.
What is your message to other mayors? Other municipalities around the country?:
Well, I’ve said this time and again, local governments and hospitals need to take advantage of the luxury they have that we didn’t. And that’s the time and the opportunity to prepare for the virus.
Communities need to have a contingency plan. And like I said, I think nationwide we should be following some kind of shelter-in-place. There’s a shortage of ventilators, a shortage of PPE. And [a shelter in place] has to be done to reduce the pressure on us to use. And I mean that because when we enacted the second executive order that was pursuant to notice from Phoebe Putney that they were approaching capacity.
What would you have done with that time if you had had an understanding of how bad this virus could be?:
Well, there again, that’s a dilemma, because nobody is going to understand how bad the virus can be unless they realize that some people are dying a gruesome death because of this virus. People think, “It doesn’t affect us. It’s not happening here.”
But what we would have done is implement this executive order prior to that time and just try to reduce the spread of the virus. Take the precautions, assume the worst. I heard from Phoebe Putney, “we’re burning through supplies.” I heard that time and time again. And then one day, a representative from the hospital explained that they’re going through 46,000 pairs of gloves a day, 5,800 surgical masks a day, 1,500 respiratory masks a day. 800 pairs of goggles. It’s just astounding.
Most of the counties surrounding us don’t have hospitals. And the two that do are very small. …They don’t have the equipment or the staff to treat patients with COVID-19.
What are you most worried about?:
I’m most focused on reducing the rate of infection in our community. I mean, what the health care professionals have told us is the first day we have more discharges from Phoebe Putney than admissions, then we will be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. And we’re not there yet.
The hospital has been on the verge of a break on two or three different occasions in the last two weeks. It was almost at a point where people could not get treatment who are in critical condition.
On what can be done at the city level going forward:
It’s hard. You have some people who are complaining because the golf courses have been shut down. And then you have small businessmen who basically are saying, “I’m going to lose everything I have.” I understand these people in the service industry. Most of them live from paycheck to paycheck. I mean, we are trying to follow the recommendations of the health care professionals. And I, if I’m being critical of anything, I’m being critical of the political response because I don’t believe that on a national and state level, we’re doing enough.
And there again, I believe that comes from just the reality that most of us don’t appreciate the gravity of any situation until it impacts someone we know or love. Unfortunately, when that happens, it’s going to be too late.
