Hancock County has long had more per capita deaths from COVID-19 than any other county in Georgia. But now it has reached a different, grimmer milestone.
Hancock County has experienced one COVID-19 death for every 100 residents. Only two other regions in the nation, rural counties in Virginia and Texas, have met that same rate of pandemic death, which is five times that of Atlanta's Fulton County.
Adrick Ingram is a funeral director and the elected coroner in Hancock County, population around 8,600, situated between Atlanta and Augusta.
(READ MORE: Georgia schools going virtual due to COVID spike)
"So I've seen families in shock because someone who was relatively healthy left home feeling ill but not returned," Ingram said.
That repeated scene is one of the reasons Ingram said he will not run for re-election to his post.
"I feel the pain, I feel the anguish, the anxiety," Ingram said.
Hancock County remains vulnerable to the coronavirus because fewer than half of its residents have been fully vaccinated so far. And, Ingram said, he has seen what he considers careless behavior - skipping mask-wearing, for instance - on the part of those who have been vaccinated.
(READ MORE: North Georgia teacher dies of COVID one month after losing her husband to the virus)
"So it's kind of a twofold thing where people understand that death and serious illness is a part of it, but also there's almost a level of feeling of invincibility with the vaccine," Ingram said. "There's a level of comfort and a place where people are not as cautious and taking the precautions that they should take."
Experts say that while vaccination does protect individuals from severe COVID-19, the new omicron variant is so transmissible that even the vaccinated should take precautions against unwittingly spreading it to others.
Also, the poverty rate in Hancock County is well over twice the average for Georgia. Major employers include nursing homes and a state prison. Plus, there are only two full-time doctors in the county and a third who rides a rural circuit.
(READ MORE: Georgia shatters COVID-19 case record amid rapid surge)
Those things add up to an environment which was ripe for exploitation by the coronavirus.
"A lot of the people who have died have suffered from comorbidities that could have been treated better early on, could have been prevented in some instances," Ingram said.
Ingram said he wants people in power to find ways to make health care accessible to all in Georgia, even though he will no longer be one of those elected officials after his current term.