By Zack Budryk - 01/28/21 03:06 PM EST
A liquid nitrogen leak at a Georgia poultry plant killed at least six people and hospitalized 10, authorities said Thursday afternoon.
A spokesperson for the Hall County Fire Department said firefighters had responded to burns at Gainesville’s Prime-Pak Foods Thursday morning and that the scene had later been updated to a hazmat situation, in a briefing streamed by an Atlanta-area NBC affiliate.
Zachary Brackett said that the fatalities included five onsite and one en route to the hospital, but that contrary to earlier reports on social media, no explosion occurred. The cause of the leak remains unknown, he said.
At least 6 dead, 3 in critical condition after liquid nitrogen leak at Georgia plant Tim Fitzsimons and David K. Li
A liquid nitrogen leak at a Georgia food packing plant killed at least six people Thursday and left three hospitalized in critical condition, officials said.
Authorities responded to a report of burns at 10:12 a.m. at the Foundation Food Group plant in Gainesville, Georgia, about 60 miles northeast of Atlanta, and within 10 minutes updated it to a hazardous materials response, Hall County Fire Service spokesman Zachary Brackett said.
A large number of evacuated employees and several people were experiencing medical emergencies around the facility, Brackett told reporters.
In 1987, a giant star exploded right next to our own Milky Way galaxy. It was the brightest and closest supernova since the invention of the telescope some four centuries earlier, and just about every observatory turned to take a look. Perhaps most excitingly, specialized observatories buried de .
Los Angeles running out of oxygen for patients as COVID hospitalizations hit record highs nationwide
Arizona now has the nation s highest rate of coronavirus hospitalizations.
By Fenit Nirappil and William WanThe Washington Post
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A patient is loaded onto an ambulance outside of the emergency entrance to PIH Health Good Samaritan Hospital on Tuesday in Los Angeles. Ambulance crews have been instructed to use oxygen only for their worst-case COVID-19 patients and not to transport them to the hospital if they have little hope of survival. Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press
The United States has entered the new year with record numbers of Americans hospitalized with coronavirus, straining a health-care system bracing for a post-holidays surge that has the potential to further stretch hospitals.
Seven health care workers at Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville became the first Northeast Georgians to receive the COVID-19 vaccine Thursday evening after doses of the vaccine arrived in the region.
They were the first of about 5,000 frontline staff and physicians to get the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which arrived at the Gainesville hospital Thursday morning, where it is being stored is specially ordered freezers to keep it at proper temperatures.
“It feels like Christmas came early,” Carol Burrell, president and CEO of Northeast Georgia Health System, said. “It’s been a long eight months for our organization and our community, as we continue to see record numbers of COVID patients. We still have a long journey ahead of us, but simply having a vaccine in our hands is a tremendous and positive step forward.”