University System News:
The Augusta Chronicle
Gov. Brian Kemp praises community collaboration in Augusta during visit
Abraham Kenmore
During a roundtable Thursday in Augusta, Gov. Brian Kemp applauded The Hub, a collaboration between multiple organizations in Augusta to create a community center for the Harrisburg and Laney-Walker neighborhoods. “It really makes you feel good to see so many people at the local level working together to address real problems we have in communities across the state, really across the country,” Kemp said after the meeting with a number of people involved in the project. …The Hub is a partnership between the Community Foundation of the CSRA, MCG Foundation, and the Boys and Girls Club of the CSRA that includes two buildings – one to house the Boys and Girls Club, the other that will hold Augusta Locally Grown, the Augusta University Literacy Center, Harrisburg Family Health Care and RISE Augusta. Ian Mercier, MCG Foundation president and CEO, said the project started with the medical college’s plans for expansion.
Other News:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Map: Coronavirus deaths and cases in Georgia (updated Dec. 30)
An updated count of coronavirus deaths and cases reported across the state
CONFIRMED CASES: 1,402,483
CONFIRMED DEATHS: 26,407 | This figure does not include additional cases that the DPH reports as suspected COVID-19-related deaths. County is determined by the patient’s residence, when known, not by where they were treated.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Omicron presents bad ‘math equation’ for Atlanta hospitals, leaders say
By Joshua Sharpe, J. Scott Trubey, Helena Oliviero
Thursday was the third day in a row Georgia set a record for new coronavirus infections, and hospitals called on the public for help
Hospitals simply can’t keep up with omicron. Across metro Atlanta, the epicenter of Georgia’s fifth coronavirus wave, hospitals are seeing record-breaking COVID-19 cases amid unprecedented staff shortages. The rapid speed of the omicron variant’s spread isn’t helping. …Georgia’s hospitals were pushed to their breaking points in last winter’s surge and this summer’s delta wave, when daily COVID-19 patient counts approached 6,000. At 3 p.m. Thursday, 2,831 people were hospitalized in Georgia for COVID-19, more than triple the number hospitalized on Thanksgiving. But the trendline is ominous. The state’s hospitals reported a net addition of more than 400 COVID-19 patients from noon Wednesday to Thursday afternoon, an increase of nearly 20% in just 27 hours.
Atlanta Business Chronicle
Playbook for 2022: How employers can support workers’ mental health
By Marq Burnett – Associate Editor, The Playbook
For many employees, the pandemic spawned a sharper focus on mental health. How employers respond represents a potential differentiator for recruitment, retention and employee well-being in 2022, experts say. Olivia Moorehead-Slaughter, a licensed psychologist with over 30 years of experience and a faculty member at The Park School in Brookline, Massachusetts, and the Center for Multicultural Training in Psychology in Boston, said the pandemic exposed mental-health stigmas and heightened the need for employers to be proactive on the issue. …In the past, if people were struggling physically or mentally, Moorehead-Slaughter said employers were able to finesse it and not really deal with it head on because they felt things would improve over time. The pandemic changed that.