Fayette County Judge Joe Weber issued the following press release late afternoon on Tuesday, Jan. 12:
Fayette County has been notified that, due to the high hospitalization rate in its trauma service area, elective surgeries and other conditions included in Gov. Abbott’s GA-32 may not be allowed.
“Fayette County is part of Trauma Service Area O (TSA O), that has had seven consecutive days in which the number of COVID-19 hospitalized patients as a percentage of total hospital capacity within TSA O exceeds 15%. Hitting that percentage meets the definition of a high hospitalization area, which prohibits elective surgeries and pushes restaurants back to 50% occupancy and closes bars,” said Fayette County Judge Joe Weber.
“However, GA-32 allows counties in TSAs with high hospitalizations to continue to allow elective surgeries if the county has fewer than 30 cases reported over the last 14 days, and the county judge submits an attestation to DSHS,” Weber said.
At this time, the data provided to the County by the Department of State Health Services indicates the Covid cases here are below the mandated number.
“I intend to immediately file the necessary paperwork that will allow St. Marks to continue to provide the needed services to our residents and allow our businesses and restaurants to continue operating at 75%. We certainly want to do everything we can to protect both the physical as well as the economic health of our community and still support our hospital and local businesses.”
Weber noted that county officials continue to work with local providers and the state to get more of the Covid vaccine here.
“We are pushing as hard as we can to get more doses of the vaccine – we’ve proven that if we get it here, we can get people vaccinated. I want to thank our local health providers and St. Marks for all the assistance they’ve provided us. We have one of lowest infection rates and Covid case counts in our region and that’s through the effort of Fayette County residents. I want to thank all of you for that.”