In rural Georgia, with one of the highest per capita COVID-19 death rates in the country, everyone knows everyone and every loss is personal. “How can we continue?” prayed one pastor who has eulogized his friends and neighbors.
DAWSON, Ga. — The reverend approached the makeshift pulpit and asked the Lord to help him make some sense of the scene before him: two caskets, side by side, in a small-town cemetery busier now than ever before.
Rural people, African Americans and the poor are more likely to work in jobs not conducive to social distancing, like the food processing plant in nearby Mitchell County where four employees died of COVID. They have less access to health care and so more often delay treatment for chronic conditions; in southwest Georgia, the diabetes rate of 16 percent is twice as high as in Atlanta.
“It’s just gone haywire, I mean haywire,” thought Eddie Keith, a 65-year-old funeral home attendant standing in the back who was familiar with all the faces on the funeral programs piling up. “People dying left and right.” These counties circle the city of Albany, which is where authorities believe the outbreak began at a pair of funerals in February. Albany is also home to the main hospital in the region, Phoebe Putney Memorial, which serves an area of 800,000 people spanning more than 50 miles in every direction, many of them with little other access to care.
By nearly every measure, coronavirus patients are faring worse in rural Georgia than almost anywhere else in America, according to researchers at Emory University in Atlanta. Although New York City had thousands more deaths, the per capita death rate in these Georgia counties is just as high. Georgia has lost seven rural hospitals in the last decade. Nine counties in rural Georgia don’t even have a doctor, according to the Georgia Alliance of Community Hospitals; 18 have no family practitioner, 60 have no pediatrician, 77 without a psychiatrist.
His son, Desmond, took him to the hospital in Albany. By then it was full, and he was sent to another hospital an hour south. Benjamin’s wife, Nellie Mae, who everyone called Pollye Ann, got sick the next day. She was routed from the Albany hospital to another an hour north. Shortly after the Tolberts got sick, Peters called her daughter and said she too had an incessant cough and was struggling to breathe. Latasha was working hours away, so she called her cousin, Desmond, and asked him to check on her.
Desmond was on the phone with a nurse as his mother took her last breath. Two days later, the call came from his father’s caregivers. Benjamin never knew that his wife got sick. She didn’t know her husband was on his death bed. They were apart, far from home, without their son at their sides. He thought of his pastor’s favorite spiritual. “Good news, good news,” the pastor would sing and walk from behind the pulpit, a little strut in his step. “I’m going to lay down my burden, store up my cross. And I’m going home to live with Jesus, ain’t that good news.”By time the Tolberts’ funeral arrived, so many had been lost to COVID-19 that Rev. Willard Weston had gotten used to delivering his eulogies through a mask. Gloves. Hand sanitizer.
Deutschland Neuesten Nachrichten, Deutschland Schlagzeilen
Similar News:Sie können auch ähnliche Nachrichten wie diese lesen, die wir aus anderen Nachrichtenquellen gesammelt haben.
Dambisa Moyo on a “Marshall Plan” for AfricaIf nothing is done, Africa is forecast to have as many as 3.3m deaths and 1.2bn infections by the end of 2020, writes dambisamoyo for The Economist
Weiterlesen »
Trevor Noah Unmasks The Absurdity Of America’s Anger Over COVID Face CoveringsAt one point in his opening monologue, Daily Social Distancing Show host Trevor Noah attempts to follow the logic of America’s anti-mask resistance. “Wearing a mask can make it hard to …
Weiterlesen »
Fauci: No scientific evidence the coronavirus was made in a Chinese labDr. Anthony Fauci tells NatGeo the U.S. must ensure not only an adequate supply of tests before any potential second wave of coronavirus hits later this year, but also a system for getting tests to those who most need them. Read more:
Weiterlesen »
Will the price of meat go up? USDA officials say yes, point to supply chain disruption from coronavirusThe COVID-19 outbreak has caused America's meat processing plants to temporarily close as workers test positive for the coronavirus, and fueling fears of substantial price increases on meat.
Weiterlesen »
What it's like to have the Covid-19 coronavirus'Fever, dry cough, shortness of breath.' These were the main symptoms to be aware of when the CDC initially released its findings of the novel Coronavirus. But as Covid-19 made its way around the world, healthcare workers and scientists noticed how different each case has been. As we navigate questions of immunity, mass testing, and severity of symptoms, the best way to study the virus has been to talk to people in recovery to have a proper understanding of their experience of how they survived.
Weiterlesen »
This Is Your Body And Brain On Coronavirus NewsYes, it's possible to be too informed. Here's what happens when you watch or read a lot of news about COVID-19.
Weiterlesen »