Posted on 03/11/2020 10:22:17 AM PDT by real saxophonist
Dublin, Ireland, canceled its St. Patrick’s Day parade this year. So did Boston.
But Savannah is still looking at putting on the green and marching despite the growing concerns about COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus that is itself marching across the world.
Georgia had 17 confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of Tuesday evening, March 10, most in the Atlanta area. There have been no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Chatham County, although Candler Hospital reported on Tuesday, it has one admitted patient under investigation. As of Tuesday afternoon the patient has neither a confirmed nor presumed case of COVID-19, caused by the new coronavirus, spokesman Scott Larson said.
Dr. Lawton Davis, health director of the Department of Public Health Coastal Health District, cautioned against making conclusions about that case.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean that that is somebody who is a high risk exposure, it means likely that it is somebody who is in the hospital, probably with a respiratory illness like pneumonia, and who probably has tested negative for some other more common things and or is failing to improve,” he said.
Davis is monitoring conditions in Savannah and communicating with officials daily and sometimes more often about the health risk to parade and festival attendees.
“At the moment we have no confirmed cases of coronavirus in Chatham County or the (11-county) Coastal Health District,” Davis said. “We have no presumptively positive cases of coronavirus in Chatham County or the Coastal Health Distric. We have absolutely zero evidence of any community spread, transmission at the community level.”
The city of Savannah will hold a public discussion with the Department of Public Health during its regularly scheduled City Council meeting on Thursday, March 12, to address coronavirus concerns and possible effects on the upcoming St. Patrick’s Day festivities.
As of Tuesday afternoon both the Festival of St. Patrick, which runs from 6 p.m. Friday, March 13, to 6 p.m. Sunday, March 15, and the 196th annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade beginning at 10:15 a.m. March 17, are still scheduled to take place as normal.
Savannah Mayor Van Johnson said the situation is evolving and any confirmed cases here could change things.
“For now there has been no recommendation or advisory with the Department of Public Health,” he said. “We want to make decisions based on the best and most up-to-date information we can get.”
Johnson said he is also basing some of his decision-making on what local schools are doing. At this point no previously unscheduled closings have been announced. Many area schools including Chatham public schools are on spring break the week of St. Patrick’s Day.
Davis said there’s no predetermined number of local cases that would trigger a recommendation to cancel. He’s looking for trends.
“If we had one case today, three cases tomorrow and 35 cases the next day, it would be obvious we were on this kind of thing,” he said, moving his hand sharply upward.
Both Johnson and Davis encouraged those who feel vulnerable to stay home.
“The reality is there is no travel ban,” Johnson said. “People are still coming, at least with the festival zone you have some control of where people are.”
River Street restaurants and shops were operating as usual Tuesday, according to Julie Ford Musselman, executive director of Savannah’s Waterfront, which is hosting the Festival of St. Patrick.
“Everything is on track. All of our merchant and restaurant deliveries are rocking,” Ford Musselman said, adding that the association is staying in close contact with the Georgia Department of Public Health and following its guidance.
“In addition to that we’re asking our member merchants, restaurants, bars and hotels to follow the CDC recommendations for businesses and employers. One of those that’s very important is to encourage sick employees to stay home and to maintain flexible policies permitting employees to stay home and take care of sick family members.”
Ford Musselman said the organization is also emphasizing increased hand washing, respiratory etiquette, providing additional hand sanitizer or wipes in the workplace and increased cleanings for commonly used surfaces items such as restaurant check presenters and pens.
Michael Owens, president and CEO of the Tourism Leadership Council, said that member hotels have reported that cancellations are up slightly from last year, but there have been no mass cancellations.
“Collectively, it’s probably several dozen, but that’s over the whole market and in other words, people are still planning on coming. That’s what’s happening and the question is, are we prepared for them as best we can when they arrive?” Owens said.
Both Ford Musselman and Owens said while the festival and parade are important to the area’s economy and hospitality industry, the decision whether or not to cancel the festivities rest with the DPH and is first and foremost a public health issue.
“For anybody who says this is about money or this is about tradition or this is about any of that, if that was the case then those decisions could already be made. It’s about health, it’s about public health and those appropriate parties will make those decisions and everybody is on board and following whatever that is,” Owens said.
“If DPH says, this is a no go, then I think everybody will stand down gracefully and try to make the best of what happens then because you’ll still have people who come. There are still going to be people that come, there’s still going to be people that fly on an airplane or drive from their community. There’s still going to be people coming and what’s that going to look like when they get here?”
Ford Musselman said the No. 1 concern is the safety of the community and guests.
“It is a public health situation, so if DPH says, this is what we have to do, we will stand with them 100%, no question, but they need to be in charge. Everyone needs to let them be in charge; that’s their job,” she said.
But Davis said decisions like these are usually collaborative ones, with input from public health, local hospital officials, school officials, and elected leaders.
“So, you know, it’s not made in a vacuum, and certainly nobody, Mayor Johnson included, takes this situation lightly,” he said. “We’re all in this together.”
Staff reporter Asha Gilbert contributed to this report
We exchanged our Easter season weeks in our Hilton Head Island time share a few years ago for the Savannah St. Patrick’s Day parade; had our sons with wife, grandkids & girlfriend along and enjoyed the parade immensely. Big surprise, when a pipe band from the Friendly Sons of the Shillelagh of our neighboring town marched by...their clubhouse is right around the corner from our home, about a two minute walk!
Biggest cheers were for a group of soldiers back from duty in Afghanistan.
Most of my professional career was in the Savannah/Hilton Head area.
Yes she was! At least as a child.
It’s about the $$$$$.
Look up 'The Hugo Bowl'.
8~)
I marched in the Savannah St. Patrick’s Day Parade more years ago than I’d like to remember. We marched in our Savannah High School ROTC units. The only thing we had to fear were young kids on the sidewalks spraying us with green ink in water pistols.
Green Silly String was the ‘weapon of choice’ in my time.
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