Good news: Potential raises and a decline in COVID cases, Keel says

Augusta University President Brooks Keel came bearing hopeful news for employees of a proposed raise and a potential decline in the currently raging COVID-19 pandemic fueled by the Omicron variant.

Keel held a virtual town hall Tuesday to address a number of issues for students, faculty and employees. First was a proposed $5,000 raise for all full-time state employees from Gov. Brian Kemp. The raise is proposed for this fiscal year in the Amended Fiscal Year 2022 budget and would become permanent in the Fiscal Year 2023 budget that begins July 1.

"This is really good news for all of our state employees," Keel said. He cautioned that it is just proposed and the budgets must be actually passed by the Georgia General Assembly for the raises to take effect.

More: Widespread immunity in Georgia and Augusta could be driving down COVID cases

More: Keel: Masks, vaccinations not required at Augusta University but 'strongly' encouraged

The proposed budget also included increased funding for medical education and $8.7 million to renovate the Central Energy Plant heating and cooling system on the Health Sciences Campus.

"We're optimistic" about approval, Keel said.

He also took time out to acknowledge front-line health care workers who are dealing with the latest COVID-19 surge.

"You're still working day in and day out, 24 hours a day," Keel said. "And we can't thank you enough for all of the great work that you do."

AU Medical Center was up to 115 COVID-19 patients as of Monday and the test positivity rate was extremely high at around 40%, Keel said. The overall case numbers and even test positivity "we feel pretty sure is under-reporting" due to the milder nature of many Omicron cases and the large number of people using at-home tests, he said. The Omicron variant led to a a very rapid rise in cases but is projected to have "an equally rapid decline in cases in the very near future," Keel said. Georgia, in fact, appears to have already started declining based on its seven-day average of cases and "that is certainly very, very good news," he said.

The Augusta area tends to lag behind the state by a week to 10 days, Keel said.

"We're optimistic, we're hopeful we'll see a decline in those cases as well," he said. "We will get through this and I do believe the end is in sight."

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Potential raises , less COVID might be 'really good news' for AU