MACON, Ga. — From masks, store closings, to COVID-19 cases rising and falling, the pandemic brought a lot of uncertainty.
"I think everyone just felt overwhelmed," said Dr. Jennifer Hoffman, infectious disease specialist at Piedmont Macon.
Hoffman says the beginning of the pandemic was rough for her.
"By the time people got to the hospital, I think their chief concern was whether or not they were going to get better whether or not they were going to survive," Hoffman said.
According to the Georgia Department of Public Health, in the last two weeks, there have been around 180 confirmed COVID cases. Last week, Georgia had their lowest level of COVID-19 hospitalizations.
"We're down to low single digits of COVID patients in the hospital and most who are there have been there for a while and are just having prolonged courses, so that's wonderful and all I can say is, 'Long may it last,'" Hoffman said.
Patrice Walker is the chief medical officer at Atrium Health Navicent. She says hospital visitations were limited. Their main goal was to make sure patients families were in constant communication.
"We were making sure that we were maintaining that confidence in the care that people were going to get coming to Atrium Health Navicent," Walker said.
Now that Georgia has seen record low hospitalizations, Walker says administrative duties that were for pandemic purpose have been implemented into their daily duties.
"Now we have a much better mechanism to make sure that a lot of different stakeholders across the organization, are aware," Walker said.
While cases are down, Hoffman says getting vaccinated will help you from getting severely sick and going to the hospital. She said a news oral treatment called Paxlovid has been authorized for use by the FDA. You must talked with your physician to determine if you meet the criteria for the oral medication.