The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia to lean into telehealth, web portal in COVID-19 fight
By J. Scott Trubey
As Georgia eases its shelter-in-place order and reopens some businesses, the state will rely heavily on a smartphone app to lead people to get coronavirus tests and a separate web portal to help track infected persons and isolate others who might have been exposed. On Monday, Gov. Brian Kemp announced a free telehealth app developed by Augusta University Health System has been expanded statewide to allow Georgians to be screened by a medical clinician via video chat or phone…The app, AU Health ExpressCare, launched in mid-March for the system’s employees, but AU Health expanded it days later to provide COVID-19 screening in its service area. The app works on Apple and Android phones and is accessible via computer at augustaexpresscare.org.For those without internet access or a smartphone, residents can call a hotline at 706-721-1852.
The Augusta Chronicle
Augusta University ready to roll out its telemedicine app statewide
By Mike Wynn
Augusta University officials Tuesday acknowledged the leadership role it will play in the statewide rollout of the health system’s telemedicine app to help diagnose people concerned they might be infected with the coronavirus a day after Gov. Brian Kemp heaped praise on the screening. “As the state’s only public academic medical center and home to the Medical College of Georgia, it seems only appropriate that our clinical expertise be shared throughout the state to ensure appropriate evaluation and testing of citizens,” AU President Brooks A. Keel said in a release Tuesday. Kemp said at a Monday news conference that he has been frustrated with the status of testing for weeks. He said the app will take testing to the “next level” and help the state health system double down on its testing capacity.
Same Story on WABE:
Augusta University To Play Key Role In Promised Escalation In Testing
Georgia Gwinnett College News
Georgia Gwinnett College IT lab using 3D printers to make PPE for health care workers
By Staff Reports
As many Americans feel helpless sequestered in their homes as the coronavirus pandemic enters its second month and health care workers on the front lines face critical shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) nationwide, a group of information technology (IT) and digital media experts in the School of Science and Technology at Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC) have found a way to join the fight against COVID-19. “It was professor of mathematics Katherine Pinzon’s idea,” said Estephanie Gonzalez, a GGC IT laboratory supervisor. “She suggested maybe we could get student workers on campus to use our 3D printing machines to help out. We have three 3D printers in our digital media lab, and the technology has been progressively getting better and better over the last few years, so it was the perfect time to have them available.”
WALB
GSW students assemble over 100K face shields in 10 days
By Chelsea Collins
With the number of coronavirus cases in the United States topping 750,000, Georgia Southwestern State University’s (GSW) Department of Athletics is doing their part to address the nationwide shortage of protective masks and shields. As of Monday, April 20, GSW Athletics has assembled over 112,500 face shields in just 10 days helping to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) to those working on the front lines. In partnership with Americus-based equipment manufacturer TSG Resolute, GSW Athletics has spent the last 10 days assembling face shields. GSW’s work is in addition to that already being done at TSG Resolute’s facility, effectively increasing the amount of PPE being assembled and delivered to healthcare providers across the country. While the local business does not typically manufacture PPE, they have shifted their time and resources to meet the need.
The Gainesville Times
By Staff Reports
With college campuses shut down for the remainder of the school year, the University of North Georgia intramural sports department has found a creative way to continue operations. Traditional team sports could not continue while still adhering to appropriate social distancing measures, but new esports leagues have kept the social and competitive spirit of UNG intramurals alive and well throughout the campus closings.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
How Georgia Tech has handled academic support in a transformed setting
By Ken Sugiura
The pace has been hectic and the challenges many. The task of helping keep Georgia Tech’s athletes on top of their classwork looks entirely different than it did in March, when the coronavirus pandemic closed campus and shifted all classes to a virtual setting. Tech president Angel Cabrera called it nothing less than “the single biggest transformation that American higher education has gone through at any point.” And yet, those who have led the shift in the method of service for Tech’s academic support staff believe the conversion has gone even better than expected.
Inside Higher Ed
By Elizabeth Redden
Students at Georgia’s public colleges and universities are petitioning for a pass-fail grading policy at their institutions this semester, arguing it is a matter of equity given the starkly different living and working situations students find themselves in following the suspension of in-person classes due to the coronavirus pandemic. Many colleges have moved to mandatory or optional pass-fail policies for the spring semester, but the University System of Georgia has resisted appeals for a pass-fail option, saying it trusts faculty to grade students effectively and that maintaining high academic standards matters. “We have so many students who are struggling right now,” said Ciera Thomas, a sophomore at the University of Georgia and an organizer of USG Students 4 Grade Reform, a coalition representing students across the University System of Georgia’s 26 institutions, which collectively enroll more than 300,000 students.
The Albany Herald
Former Valdosta State employee arrested for email threats
By Staff Reports
A former Valdosta State University employee is in custody, charged by criminal complaint for sending threatening emails to victims at universities across the country. Shawn Charles Merdinger, 50, of Lake Park, had an initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles Weigle from the Tift County Jail, where the defendant is currently in custody…The complaint alleges that Merdinger sent several emails between April 16 and April 19 to addresses affiliated with individuals employed at the University of California at Santa Barbara, University of Indiana, University of Texas, University of Texas at Austin, the University System of Georgia and Valdosta State University. The messages contained threats of extreme violence to the victims and himself, as well as general threats of harm, including a specific statement targeted toward the University of Texas at Austin emailed on April 18.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Kemp on coronavirus rollback: ‘This is not a giant leap forward’
By Greg Bluestein
Gov. Brian Kemp defended his aggressive move to roll back restrictions he instituted to contain the coronavirus, as mayors of Georgia cities warn they’re not ready for a wave of businesses to reopen this week and federal health officials raised concerns. In a Tuesday appearance on Fox News, Kemp characterized his decision to reopen restaurants, theaters, barber shops, fitness centers and other businesses shuttered this month as a “measured approach” to help Georgians revive a faltering economy. “We took measured steps to get to the shelter in place, and now we’re taking measured steps to come out of that,” said Kemp. “This is not a giant leap forward.”
The Atlanta Business Chronicle
Navigating COVID-19: Business owners respond to Kemp lifting lockdown
By Staff Reports
On April 20, Gov. Brian Kemp’s announced that some of the state’s businesses — including restaurants, gyms, hair salons and movie theaters — will begin to reopen, starting Friday, April 24, with certain restrictions in place, such as social distancing. The state’s order overrides any local municipality actions. The decision comes after the White House released “Opening Up America” guidelines that includes criteria to be met before reopening certain businesses, such as the leveling off of new COVID-19 infections, fewer emergency room visits by people with flu-like symptoms and the ability for hospitals to treat patients without crisis care. Kemp explained the decision in part by noting Georgia has expanded its hospital bed capacity — including the temporary facility at the Georgia World Congress Center — and has plans to further increase testing. Financially, the pandemic is estimated to have cost the state approximately $1 billion in sales taxes and $270 million in ESPLOST funds for Georgia public schools.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia’s evolving testing machinery will be tested as state reopens
By Willough Mariano and J. Scott Trubey,
The success of Gov. Brian Kemp’s hotly-debated decision to begin reopening Georgia’s economy rests on whether the state can detect novel coronavirus hotspots before they flare out of control, and reliably demonstrate that it’s safe to move about. The state Department of Public Health is rapidly increasing the number of testing sites and deploying the Georgia National Guard to help build up the state’s testing system. But whether enough tests, supplies and sites are available statewide to ease restrictions for the state’s 10.6 million residents — without a spike in new COVID-19 cases — depends on a testing infrastructure that is still a work in progress. Public health experts estimate conservatively that Georgia needs to double or even quadruple the 4,000 or so diagnostic tests by public and private labs that the state has reported daily in the past five days. Preliminary information on the current locations and capacities of state-operated testing sites show that steep challenges lie ahead before everyone who needs testing can get it, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis shows.
Higher Education News:
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Colleges Have Been Waiting for Guidance on How They Can Send Stimulus Money to Students. Here It Is.
By Danielle McLean
Over the past few weeks, college administrators have been grappling with how to distribute coronavirus stimulus money to their students. On Tuesday, they got some clarity — as well as some new complications. In newly released guidance, the U.S. Department of Education informed administrators that they are only allowed to issue funds to students who are eligible for Title IV financial aid. That cuts out international students and undocumented immigrants — including those receiving Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) protections — from receiving any of the roughly $6 billion that the Cares Act allocates directly to emergency student aid.
Inside Higher Ed
How Teaching Changed in the (Forced) Shift to Remote Learning
By Doug Lederman
It will be some time before we know the full impact of the COVID-19-induced shift to remote learning this spring — how it altered the arc of students’ academic careers, for example, or affected the extent and nature of their learning. But we now have some early data on how it reshaped instructors’ teaching practices. A survey released today by Bay View Analytics (formerly the Babson Survey Research Group) and its president, the digital learning researcher Jeff Seaman, offers some insights into the transition that virtually all colleges, instructors and students undertook this spring as the novel coronavirus shut down campuses across the country.
The Washington Post
More Than A Million College Students Will Be Shut Out Of Emergency Grant Program
By Danielle Douglas-Gabrielle
Congress offered a lifeline to college students facing financial insecurity as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, but the Trump administration is restricting who can receive help. Guidance issued Tuesday by the Education Department narrows student eligibility for the nearly $7 billion in emergency grant aid set aside in the stimulus package. Only students who can participate in federal student aid programs can receive money, a stipulation that effectively shuts out undocumented and international students. Collectively, that is at least 1.5 million college students, according to the latest available data. And that is not accounting for others who could be left in the lurch because of the way the guidance is written.