GA Records More Than 3K Deaths Total As Of Sunday From COVID-19

ATLANTA, GA — Georgia may have recorded only five more deaths from COVID-19 in numbers posted Sunday by its health department, but the state did cross a milestone — more than 3,000 deaths total from the disease since the pandemic started.

Georgia also reported another high number of new cases in a 24-hour period, with more than 2,500 new positive tests for the coronavirus.

The Georgia Department of Public Health reported a total of 116,926 confirmed cases of COVID-19 at 2:50 p.m. Sunday. That's 2,525 more than was reported at the same time Saturday. Georgia’s record for most new COVID-19 cases in a day is 4,484, set on Friday.

Georgia also reported 3,001 deaths from COVID-19, five more that reported Saturday. In addition, the state reported 13,259 hospitalizations — 54 more than the day before — and 2,621 total admissions to intensive-care units.

Counties in or near metro Atlanta continue to have the highest number of positives, with Gwinnett still in the lead.

• Gwinnett County: 11,304 cases — 230 new
• Fulton County: 10,595 cases — 241 new
• DeKalb County: 8,253 cases — 109 new
• Cobb County: 7,049 cases — 109 new
• Hall County: 3,813 cases — 39 new

Counties in or near metro Atlanta also continue to have the highest number of deaths. The lone exception is Dougherty County, the site of Georgia's first major outbreak.

• Fulton County: 324 deaths
• Cobb County: 254 deaths
• Gwinnett County: 183 deaths
• DeKalb County: 180 deaths
• Dougherty County: 156 deaths

As of Sunday, more than 1.2 million Georgians have been tested for COVID-19, with about 14 percent of those tests the less reliable ones used to detect antibodies.

For the first time on July 8, Georgia's COVID-19 website reported separately the percentage of positive results for each type of test without reporting a cumulative percentage. For the more reliable test for the virus itself, 9.8 percent of tests came back positive. For the less reliable test for antibodies, 5.1 percent came back positive. The overall positive rate was about 9.1 percent.

All Georgia statistics are available on the state's COVID-19 website.

Globally, nearly 12.8 million people have been infected by COVID-19, and more than 566,000 people have died, Johns Hopkins University reported Sunday.

In the United States, nearly 3.3 million people have been infected and more than 135,000 people have died from COVID-19 as of Sunday. The U.S. has only about 4 percent of the world's population but more confirmed cases and deaths than any other country.