AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Thursday was World Rabies Day, and the impact of the virus hits close to home in the CSRA, where two counties on the Georgia side of the border are on the upper range of cases this year for the Peach State.

Columbia County has tied Banks County for No. 2 with seven cases this year, and McDuffie County is in a multi-way tie for No. 4 with five cases.

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Just this week, a rabid raccoon was reported discovered in Columbia County, on Yelton Farm Road in Appling. And on Sept. 20, a rabid racoon got in a fight with a dog in McDuffie County. The dog had to be euthanized.

While any mammal can transmit rabies, the animals most commonly infected in our region are raccoons, bats, skunks, foxes, cats and dogs.

In the CSRA, raccoons are the top carriers discovered this year, followed by skunks.

Since 2002, South Carolina has averaged approximately 148 positive cases in animals per year; there have been 66 cases so far this year.

Georgia sees about 200 cases a year, with 138 reported so far in 2023.

Although it’s rare for people to die of rabies in the U.S. – thanks to a vaccine that’s available once a person is exposed – the virus kills 59,000 people a year around the world.

It’s almost always fatal once symptoms start in humans. In fact, only 29 people in the world have ever been known to survive it.

World Rabies Day was started in 2007 to raise awareness about the world’s deadliest infectious disease and bring together partners to help prevent and control it.

What to do

Health officials recommend taking these steps:

• Make sure your dogs and cats are currently vaccinated against rabies.
• Do not let your pets roam free. They are more likely to have contact with a rabid wild animal.
• Avoid feeding your animals outside. This draws stray and wild animals to your doorstep.
• Teach your children not to approach wild animals and animals they don’t know.

By the numbers

Here are the county-by-county preliminary totals of rabies cases in Georgia so far this year:

• Baldwin, 1
• Banks, 7
• Barrow, 1
• Bartow, 1
• Bibb, 1
• Bulloch, 1
• Burke, 2
• Carroll, 2
• Chatham, 2
• Chattooga, 1
• Cherokee, 2
• Clarke, 2
• Cobb, 3
• Coffee, 1
• Columbia, 7
• Crawford, 1
• Crisp, 1
• Dekalb, 3
• Dougherty, 6
• Douglas, 1
• Evans, 1
• Floyd, 4
• Forsyth, 1
• Franklin, 4
• Fulton, 2
• Glascock, 1
• Glynn, 3
• Gordon, 2
• Gwinnett, 9
• Habersham, 3
• Hall, 5
• Harris, 1
• Hart, 4
• Henry, 3
• Houston, 1
• Jefferson, 1
• Jenkins, 1
• Lowndes, 1
• Lumpkin, 2
• Madison, 2
• McDuffie, 5
• Mitchell, 1
• Murray, 1
• Muscogee, 4
• Oconee, 1
• Paulding, 2
• Pickens, 1
• Pike, 2
• Pulaski, 1
• Rabun, 1
• Richmond, 2
• Rockdale, 3
• Schley, 1
• Tattnall, 1
• Thomas, 1
• Tift, 2
• Toombs, 2
• Troup, 1
• Upson, 1
• Walton, 2
• Wayne, 1
• Worth, 5

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AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Over the past several years, downtown Augusta has come alive.

To further the progress even more, discussions are taking place to create a Savannah-style entertainment district.

Current ordinances downtown don’t allow for open containers or bars to have outdoor seating, only restaurants. This means for the Augusta Pedal Pub, customers have to pour out their drink and wonder why.

“We get that question often,” said owner Charity Jones.

She says out of all of the Pedal Pub franchise locations, Augusta is the only one not allowed to drink in the pub, which confuses customers.

“(They say) I could go to this area to get that. Why don’t you guys do that for your areas? We just have to say, ‘No, we’re working on it and soon we will have it all worked out for everyone to be able to have that opportunity,’” said Jones.

The attempt to get this worked out is on for them.

One solution brought up with city leaders was to make an entertainment district downtown. This would be a defined area with different rules, allowing things like open containers.

“Everybody in this sector would benefit from it in a great way. We’re together and we speak loudly saying, ‘Yes, please work on that for us here in Augusta,’” said Jones.

This would make Garden City more competitive in the tourism market, too.

“We’re all competing cities across the state of Georgia,” said Margaret Woodard, executive director of the Downtown Development Authority. “Ever since the pandemic, people are looking for experiences. You can come downtown and you can go sit in a bar and have a drink or sit in a restaurant, have a drink or people are really looking for experiences. They want to find the interesting, quaint, eclectic things in downtown Augusta that aren’t in larger cities. We’ve got a beautiful climate. We’ve got beautiful historic structures in our downtown and what a great way then to be able to stroll the sidewalks in the evening hours or on Saturday and Sunday when there are events and be able to explore downtown Augusta.”

Woodard says the most comparable city is Savannah where she’s seen something like this work. Adding this downtown just makes sense.

“It’s the heart and soul of the city. It’s where the majority of the bars, restaurants, entertainment venues are the arena. The Bell, the Miller, the Imperial. It’s a very dense area where people come to experience an urban setting,” said Woodard.

The commission also authorized planning and development to revisit and draft a change to the alcohol ordinance. The plan is to present this in October.

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AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – At Lamar-Milledge Elementary School, Former Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Falcons player Brian Jordan stopped by to be a part of Richmond County schools’ literacy initiative.

Jordan was seen reading and talking to students Thursday in hopes of getting them to read not just in the classroom but outside of it as well.

“The knowledge is in the books and I think that’s what holds a lot of kids back that they don’t read enough. So, in life, the more knowledge you have, the more successful you’ll be in life. And I just encourage kids to read, read, read,” said Jordan.

Schools that participated in Jordan’s reading challenge will log the number of minutes read by students, and Jordan will return to schools to reward both the school and students who have met their reading goals.

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