ATLANTA — After seeing some wintry weather over the weekend, several north Georgia counties have decided to delay opening their health departments and COVID testing sites Tuesday morning.
The delays follow ice and snowfall conditions that continue to impact several counties across north Georgia.
The Fannin, Gilmer, and Pickens County Health Departments, along with the MAKO Medical COVID-19 drive-thru testing site in Jasper, will delay their openings until 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 18 due to potential icy roads making travel unsafe for drivers, the North Georgia Health District said in a news release.
Several Georgia school districts also decided to switch to virtual learning or close down entirely in response to the weekend's winter weather that saw much of the Peach State draped in thin layers of snow. Schools in Banks, Gainseville, Habersham, Hall, Rabun and White counties elected to close on Tuesday as precautionary measures. Schools in Dalton, Pickens and Union counties will switch to virtual learning for Tuesday, Jan. 18 instead.
Roughly 100,000 Georgia Power customers were affected by power outages over the weekend following Winter Storm Izzy, a flurry of high-speed wind gusts, rain and light sprinklings of snow that left officials warning drivers to stay on the lookout for black ice on the roads. The Peach State now faces another possible round of wintry weather later this week, with frigid temperatures and rain expected Thursday night and possibly into the weekend.
