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The COVID-19 pandemic presents unique challenges for every business and every individual, creating a new reality.

It also provides an opportunity for creative solutions to maximize customer and employee service and value and ways in which each business can individually be of service to others, said Mark Lupo, a consultant with the Small Business Development Center at the University of Georgia.

“For small businesses, this can be a time to build relationships with customers and employees on a deeper level, by communicating that you care about them and are concerned for their safety,” Lupo said.

Business owners can demonstrate concern for employees and customers by:

Having adequate cleaning supplies, including the appropriate approved hand sanitizer, available for all customers and employees.

Putting up signs letting customers know the steps you are taking to provide for their safety and that of employees.

Reconsidering normal business hours and operations, even to the detriment of sales, in order to protect customers and employees from exposure to the virus.

Providing alternative access to products and services by offering delivery or letting customers purchase products online that they can easily pick up from the store.

Setting special store hours just for customers most vulnerable to the virus.

Limiting the number of people inside the business at any one time.

Using email and social media to communicate regularly with customers and employees so that they know of any change in operations.

Business owners can minimize the effects of the outbreak by:

Considering how to avoid layoffs or salary cuts during the downturn in revenue.

Being transparent with employees, understanding their anxiety.

Talking with banks or credit unions about potential cash flow shortfalls and what they can offer to help get through this period.

Asking suppliers about flexible payment terms for orders.

Seeking additional suppliers for products and services in case a vendor can no longer meet its commitment.

Consumers can support local businesses by:

Continuing to buy local, even online.

Cleaning their hands before entering businesses.

Maintaining a 6-foot distance between themselves and other people.

Minimizing time inside a business.

Staying home when they are sick.

The Small Business Development Center provides tools, training and resources to help small businesses grow and succeed. Designated as one of Georgia’s top providers of small business assistance, the SBDC has 17 offices located throughout the state to serve the needs of Georgia’s business community. The SBDC, a UGA Public Service and Outreach unit, is funded in part by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

With tables wide apart and staff wearing masks, some Georgia restaurants reopened for limited dine-in service Monday as the state loosened more coronavirus restrictions, but many eateries remained closed amid concerns that serving in-house meals could put employees and customers at risk.

Read more at US News

The unprecedented challenges facing global health care systems as a result of COVID-19 reveal the urgent need for the global adoption of a data-driven, personalized approach to health and wellness, according to the Five Trends Driving the Emergence of the Personalized Health Ecosystem report. While organizations have long recognized the potential of technology to capture and use data to transform their industry, until now, they have lacked the “burning platform” that the pandemic provides to make changes imperative.

Pamela Spence, EY Global Health Sciences and Wellness Industry Leader, says:

“The human cost of the COVID-19 crisis is insurmountable and it has elevated the need to place health care on a different footing to proactively anticipate and manage the challenges that will emerge in the future. This will require organizations to rethink how health care is delivered and move toward a truly personalized, data-driven ecosystem. If organizations can seize the opportunity to sharpen their data strategies and refine their business models, they can position themselves to lead and demonstrate value.”

One of the trends the report explores is how the crisis has provided the urgency needed to accelerate the progress of new approaches and mindsets that will allow the transformation of health care. According to the report’s findings, if this transformation takes place, the health sciences and wellness industry could see a global approach to health that is not only effective against future infectious disease outbreaks, but also the slower-burning chronic disease crises, from diabetes and heart disease to cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.

Global efforts to contain COVID-19 rapidly demonstrated that health care data are exponentially more powerful if they can be connected, combined and shared. However, in most geographies, data is trapped in siloes, fragmented across different systems and different organizations, making it impossible to rapidly integrate and analyze, and limiting the information’s effectiveness in assisting real-time health care efforts. According to the report, addressing this challenge requires a new way of thinking; organizations must focus less on owning and monetizing data and more on connecting and combining it to drive valuable insights that can transform health care.

There are still major challenges to realizing the vision of a personalized health ecosystem. The report outlines four additional trends organizations will need to focus their efforts to build a data-driven future:

With sensors in, on and around us 5G and artificial intelligence (AI) will create a new network for transforming health care: These technologies together will form the basis of a new network, essential to delivering health care. Sensors ubiquitously present, will provide rich, continuous stream of data via next-generation broadband networks for real-time AI analysis.

To personalize health, organizations must use data to understand and influence behavior: Behavioral science has proved among the most important mechanisms for defeating COVID-19, as governments have urged social distancing measures. Looking ahead, it will be critical for organizations to develop behavioral science tools in ways that can increase treatment efficacy and affordability. Bigger datasets and more powerful AI feedback loops will allow a better mix of products and personalized services and solutions for optimized health outcomes.

A trusted intelligence system is needed to secure the participation of the patient-consumer and other stakeholders: Trust and collaboration between stakeholders has been necessitated by the fight against COVID-19 but the underlying challenges regarding cybersecurity and AI remain. As connectivity is central to health care, developing a trusted cyber protection that can secure the necessary large-scale exchanges of data between stakeholders and AI systems that can analyze it, will be critical. 

Organizations must be decisive in the business model they choose to pursue in the future: Capital is likely to be even more constrained in the wake of the pandemic and organizations must move towards more focused business models to secure value in the future. For many organizations, the challenge post-COVID-19 will remain: to identify what business model they can best adopt and to acquire the data that will make them most effective in this area.

The full EY report is available at ey.com/fivetrendshealth.

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With performance venues still closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Atlanta arts groups continue to offer online and streaming content.

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has unveiled the expansion of its Virtual Stage, which will showcase archival performances, musician videos, on demand concerts, insightful interviews and education programs. Each Thursday evening at 8 p.m. on the Virtual Stage, the ASO hosts an event such as interactive Watch Parties, Premieres and Listening Parties on Facebook and YouTube. Upcoming events include The Morehouse College Glee Club 109th Annual Concert (April 30); ASO Principal Trumpet Stuart Stephenson performs Arutiunian’s Trumpet Concerto at Home (May 7);  and Everything Lasts Forever with composer Michael Kurth, ASO, and mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor (May 14).  Visit aso.org/VirtualStage for more information.

Dance lovers should check out Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre’s Ailey All Access, a free online initiative, featuring a series of weekly performance broadcasts, original short films created by the Ailey dancers, Ailey Extension dance and fitness classes and more. Full-length ballets are available every Thursday at 7 p.m. Visit www.alvinailey.org for a full schedule of events.

The Alliance Theatre will host a weeklong Virtual Play Club focusing on the 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning play Sweat as a catalyst for connectivity, creativity and civic participation. The Alliance was forced to cancel its full production of Sweat, directed by Tinashe Kajese-Bolden, following the COVID-19 crisis, but the story and themes are still incredibly relevant for audiences to experience.  Patrons are encouraged to read the script (available for free on the Alliance’s website through May 1) and then virtually gather with family and friends using the “HOST YOUR OWN PLAY CLUB” guide to explore artistic and civic issues in Sweat. Then, on May 1st – International Labor Day – the Alliance will host a conversation with Tinashe Kajese-Bolden, Director, and Pearl Cleage, award winning Atlanta-based playwright, on Sweat and the role of theater in reflecting and creating in times of crisis, featuring guest appearances and commentary from Atlanta theater artists and community activists. Supplementary content, including articles, interviews, videos, and more, can also be found on the Sweat Virtual Play Club website at www.alliancetheatre.org/sweat.  RSVP is require to get the link to the live conversations.

The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival (AJFF) has announced a new virtual programs, as well as expanded recommendations for at-home movie watching. Among the offerings, the AJFF In Conversation podcast and webinar foster dialogue around Jewish film culture, film artists and industry voices, and related themes. AJFF Playback celebrates the festival’s 20^th anniversary with a bracket-style retrospective that invites audiences to watch and then vote for favorite films from the AJFF vault. Meanwhile, AJFF continues to curate the best in international and independent cinema, offering ongoing viewing recommendations for housebound audiences during the coronavirus pandemic via AJFF.org and social channels. Check out the continuously updated blog here for picks of book to screen, movie musicals, food-focused films, and more.

The post ASO, Ailey, Alliance and AJFF offering online shows and events appeared first on Atlanta INtown Paper.

The state’s Department of Public Health reports that 129 Georgians have died from COVID-19 in the last 72 hours. The death toll as of 7 p.m. on April 28 stands at 1,036 and confirmed cases at 24,844. The new statistics come as the number of U.S. confirmed cases have surpassed 1 million and 58,947 Americans have died.

CNN reported today that Georgia is projected to see its number of daily COVID-19 deaths nearly double by early August, according to an updated model shared by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The projections for Georgia show the highest uptick in deaths per day will be between May and August.

The Greater Atlanta COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund, a joint effort from Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta and United Way of Greater Atlanta has said a fifth round of grants totaling $1.463 million will be distributed to 13 organizations for emergency response. A grand total of nearly $12 million from the fund has been mobilized to benefit 75 nonprofits to date. Grants made in the earlier rounds are detailed on both the Community Foundation’s website and United Way’s website. Some of the organizations receiving funding include KIPP Metro Atlanta Schools, Partners for HOME, Quality Care for Children, Southerners on New Ground, and Georgia Public Broadcasting.

Tomorrow’s News Today has a listing of metro Atlanta restaurants that reopened on April 27 after Gov. Brian Kemp’s order that dining rooms could reopen to customers. Many of the restaurants that have decided to open are corporate chain operations.

The post Georgia’s COVID-19 deaths surpass 1,000 and cases near 25k, plus more updates appeared first on Atlanta INtown Paper.

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Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said in an afternoon interview with The Washington Post Live that Georgia is going in the “opposite direction” when it comes to social distancing measures to combat the coronavirus outbreak.

“Our numbers are continuing to rise,” Bottoms said, noting that the latest figures show the state has 24,615 confirmed cases and 1,026 related deaths. “We are lifting our foot off the pedal and we’re not out of the woods.”

Bottoms said over the last three days, Grady Hospital has seen an increase in the number of people coming in and testing positive for coronavirus.

Bottoms said states like New York and Washington had COVID-19 figures trending in the right direction thanks to social distancing measures. “We’re going in the opposite direction,” the mayor said about Georgia.

While Atlanta has the bed capacity for COVID-19 patients, the mayor said it defied logic – and health experts – that those beds would be used by people who got sick because they were bored and wanted to go a bowling alley.

Bottoms was referencing Gov. Brian Kemp’s decision to begin reopening businesses like bowling alleys, hair salons, barbershops, massage parlors, tattoo parlors, restaurant dining rooms, and movie theaters. Bottoms said she and other Georgia mayors were not consulted by Kemp and his order to reopen businesses cannot be countermanded at the local level.

“My options and powers are limited against Gov. Kemp’s move, but I do have the authority to use my voice and encourage people to stay home,” Bottoms said as the governor’s shelter-in-place order is set to expire on April 30.

Bottoms said she understood “people who are dealing with whether or not to go back to work to put food on their table, but I don’t understand people going to a movie theater or bowling alley because they’re bored.”

“Some people are just tired of being in the house and they want to go back to life as normal – getting their nails done and a haircut,” she said. “People are making tough economic decision to stay at home and preserve their health. It’s a very difficult dynamic people are having to choose.”

Asked about the racial disparity in access to testing in Atlanta, Bottoms said there were now testing facilities in predominantly African-American communities, but the issue is the racial disparity that is impacting the state as a whole. She cited a story in the Washington Post that said African Americans accounted for more than 50 percent of Georgia’s deaths, despite making up about 30 percent of the state’s 10.6 million people.

“This virus is discriminating against people of color, because African-American communities have a higher rate of infection with underlying conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure,” Bottoms said.

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