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Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told the Atlanta City Council during her weekly COVID-19 briefing this afternoon that the city was following a five-phase reopening plan outlined in a report issued by her advisory committee.

The mayor said the city is already in phase one of the reopening, which encourages residents to stay at home, social distancing, and using takeout/delivery at restaurants. Phase one also includes monitoring of statistics and following a recommended 14-day downward trend for new cases, deaths, and hospitalizations.

“The reopening of Atlanta will be informed and driven by data,” Bottoms said.

Bottoms said there was concern about the integrity of the COVID-19 data being reported by the Georgia Department of Public Health after a series of high-profile errors inflated or lowered various statistics. She said the city was working with John Hopkins University to create a dashboard on the ATLSTRONG.org website that would include figures and insights.

The mayor said she believed the city might be able to enter the second phase of the reopening plan as early as next week. The “easing phase” would require proven metrics on diagnostic testing and contact tracing. The second phase would also allow small, private gatherings of 10 people with social distancing.

Bottoms said city recreation usage such as single tennis matches and being able to swim laps in city swimming pools is being reviewed now. There’s also discussion about opening Camp Best Friends for children in July with small groups and social distancing.

As for the reopening of city hall, Bottoms said she was still in no rush and was resisting pressure to do so. Bottoms said she was worried that reopening city hall would have an impact on communities of color and medically fragile who work and do business there. “We may not reopen until July, but we are monitoring the situation weekly.”

Another issue which took up part of the briefing was the issue of so-called “waterboys” – young people selling bottled water to make extra money at intersections and interstate off-ramps.

Councilmember Marci Collier Overstreet said she had received numerous complaints from constituents about aggressive young people tapping on windows, littering, and taking crates or carts from supermarkets.  Councilmember Cleta Winslow said she had heard that one of young people was threatened with a gun and said police should at least make them get off interstate ramps.

Bottoms said she had discussed the “waterboys” issue with Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields and both agreed the young people should not be arrested simply for selling water. The police were not making arrests for selling water unless there was aggressive behavior, combativeness or putting themselves or motorists in danger.

“I’ve encountered these young people frequently and most are usually very polite, but some are very aggressive,” Bottoms said, noting that she’d had discussions about possibly creating a city program to channel the “entrepreneurial spirit” of the young people in a safer way.

The post Mayor says city will follow five-phase reopening plan, city hall possibly closed until July appeared first on Atlanta INtown Paper.

Transparency and integrity when it comes to the collection of COVID-19 data is the number one priority of the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH), according to state health commissioner Dr. Kathleen Toomey.

Gov. Brian Kemp praised Toomey and the department’s work during his May 21 COVID-19 briefing at the State Capitol.

“We are committed to full transparency when it comes to accurate data,” Kemp said. “The public can be confident in the data, but we do make mistakes. We own that.”

“The integrity of data is our number one priority,” Toomey said. “We have to have transparency, and we’re working to improve all of our reporting systems. Having multiple, actionable data is a top priority and so is making it available to the public, media, and agencies.”

Toomey confirmed May 20 that the state’s COVID-19 testing numbers had been inflated by 57,000, or roughly 14 percent of the tests to date.

According to reporting by the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, the DPH had been including antibody tests, which can detect if someone once had the coronavirus, with tests for active infections. The revelation prompted Kemp’s office to request that the department remove antibody tests from the state’s totals.

Georgia has been under scrutiny for numerous errors in reporting COVID-19 cases to the public over the past month. Toomey said it was an “unprecedented ask” for a health agency to ramp up so quickly to monitor a novel coronavirus, but insured steps were being taken to provide the most accurate data.

Kemp said the state continues to see a steady decline in the number of those testing positive and that there were now less than 1,000 people hospitalized around the state. “That’s a 38 percent drop in hospitalizations since May 1,” Kemp said.

The state has mothballed its surge field hospital at the Georgia World Congress Center, although it could be reconstituted quickly if needed. The facility, which opened in mid April, only  had 17 patients.

Kemp also noted that CVS was opening 23 additional drive-thru COVID-19 testing sites around the state and that the contact tracing program – dubbed Healthy Georgia Collaborative – would have 500 tracers in the field by next week and a 1,000 by June.

The post After errors, state health commissioner calls integrity of COVID-19 data a ‘number one priority’ appeared first on Atlanta INtown Paper.

If you’ve watched everything Netflix has to offer, the Lefont Film Society has a slate of indie, foreign, and documentary films available as part of its Virtual Pop-Up Cinema.

Donna Lefont, the ex-wife-and-still-friend of former cinema empresario George Lefont,  has created the streaming film platform at FoodFilmMusic.com. She’s been using her connections in the movie industry to curate an eclectic selection of films.

Titles coming up include the documentaries “Life Itself,” about film critic Roger Ebert, and “Diana Kennedy: Nothing Fancy,” about the Mexican food expert from Britain.

Also streaming is the classic 1972 French film “Les Choses De La Vie,” about a philandering husband coming to terms with his marriage after a car accident, and coming up on May 29 is the controversial documentary “Blackfish,” about the captivity of killer whales.

“My goal is to curate a slate of films like George did when he was operating Garden Hills Cinema, Plaza Theatre Cinema or Silver Screen,” Lefont said.

She plans to keep the platform going – splitting rental costs for the films with the distributors – and include guest film curators, question and answer sessions with noted film buffs, and chefs cooking a meal inspired by their favorite movies.

“Until we can meet again at the movie theater, I think Lefont Film Society is offering a way for film fans to stay connected,” Lefont said.

The post Lefont Film Society streaming indies, foreign, and documentaries in Virtual Pop-Up Cinema appeared first on Atlanta INtown Paper.

Key highlights from this report: What will the housing market be like during the summer of 2020? That’s one of the top questions we’ve received from our readers this momth. Recent reports suggest that we could see an increase in home-buying activity. Home buyers could have fewer properties to choose from this summer. Near-record-low mortgage […]

The post Summer 2020 Housing Market Trends: Are Home Buyers Gearing Up? appeared first on HBI News.

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The Georgia Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Kathleen Toomey confirmed Wednesday that the state’s COVID-19 testing numbers had been inflated by 57,000, or roughly 14 percent of the tests to date.

According to reporting by the AJC, the state’s Department of Public Health has been including antibody tests, which can detect if someone once had the coronavirus, with tests for active infections.

The DHP’s inclusion of antibody tests, which was first reported by the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, prompted Gov. Brian Kemp’s office to request that the department remove antibody tests from the state’s totals.

Toomey said she was unaware that so many antibody tests had been included, and said “it’s not really an error. It’s a way it was collected. I didn’t fully appreciate how many antibody tests have been done.”

Georgia has been under scrutiny and ridiculed for its continued errors in in reporting COVID-19 cases to the public. Kemp had trumpeted Georgia’s rise in testing capacity to number 20 in the nation, but the removal of the antibody tests dropped Georgia back to 29th

The latest DHP numbers show nearly 40,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Georgia with the death toll at 1,697.

The post Report: COVID-19 testing numbers inflated by collection error appeared first on Atlanta INtown Paper.

Heritage Southeast Bank employees worked closely with 960 small businesses in Georgia to help them receive loans totaling more than $104 million via the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) lending. The program offered Small Business Administration loans to help companies keep their workforce employed during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. Heritage Southeast Bank, headquartered in Jonesboro, Georgia, facilitated the loans via its three brands Heritage Bank, Providence Bank, and The Heritage Bank out of locations in South Metro Atlanta, North Fulton, and South Georgia and North Florida, respectively. The loans were critical lifelines for many of the businesses.

“Our employees partnered with business owners to navigate the loan program and help almost a thousand companies in Georgia keep their people employed and their operations going to serve customers,” said Leonard Moreland, Chief Executive Officer of Heritage Southeast Bank. “It is our privilege to be able to help these small businesses continue to operate during this challenging time.”

The bank helped businesses throughout Georgia in a wide variety of industries ranging from service businesses, retail, and professional services. “Providence Bank walked our company through the Payroll Protection Program application process from start to finish,” said Peyton Jamison with Jamison Private Wealth Management in Alpharetta, Georgia. “We couldn’t be happier to be a client of Providence Bank and will be for years to come.”

Kasandra McDaniel, owner of Friendship Learning Center with locations in Tucker and Buford, Georgia, worked with Heritage Bank for her PPP loan. “I wish I could let you hear the excitement in some of our employees’ voices when I told them that we got this loan. This loan really does help us as small business owners keep our doors open.”

“The service I received at The Heritage Bank was phenomenal.” added Myron Anderson, CEO of Jones Prescription Shop in Jesup, Georgia. “They made the process comfortable for me which allowed me to keep my focus on running the shop and taking care of our customers.”

Moreland noted that the local banks’ strong relationships with customers helped them connect quickly with businesses regarding the loan process. “We are an independent community bank committed to the communities we serve. We know our customers well and put our knowledge to work to help many of them get the funding they needed to weather this unprecedented storm,” he said.