COVID-19 Public Health Collaborations
Supporting practice- and evaluation- focused activities that put Emory’s talented academic community into the service of Georgia’s public health partners during the COVID-19 crisis and into the future.
Georgia Department of Public Health
Coordinating with GDPH, Dr. Shivani Patel organizes a team of RSPH faculty and students to assist in the execution of state-level COVID-19 projects including geospatial analyses, data cleaning and quality, syndromic surveillance, inequities and underlying conditions, and transmission dynamics.
Local Health Districts
To assist with the epidemiology surge capacity at the county level, Drs. Neel Gandhi and Sarita Shah, have been performing nasal swab testing at the Fulton County Board of Health drive through and mobile COVID-19 testing sites, along with mobile outreach sites. In addition to providing guidance and technical assistance on data analytics and visualizations on the County’s epidemiologic reports, Drs. Gandhi and Shah along with Dr. Allison Chamberlain, have recruited multiple students and staff from Rollins to assist with case investigations.
Outbreak Response
Led by Dr. Jodie Guest, Rollins students spent many hours working on COVID-19 outbreaks across Georgia during the summer of 2020. The team provided free COVID-19 testing to those in communities hardest hit by the epidemic. In addition they worked with community partners to develop educational materials to promote PPE use and hygiene. The students in this group have received invaluable hands on experience serving vulnerable communities in Georgia while contributing meaningfully to their applied practical experiences. The outbreak response team is poised and ready to respond if called upon to help curb outbreaks in other regions of the state. This team is coordinating with Georgia Health Districts to determine the need for active response across the state.
COVIDVu
Drs. Patrick Sullivan and Aaron Siegler have organized and are leading this 1,200-household survey across Georgia to better understand COVID-19 prevalence in GA. Additional information regarding this project may be found on the COVIDVu website.