GA Sets Two COVID-19 Records: 82 Deaths, More Than 4.8K New Cases

ATLANTA, GA — Georgia set two single-day records Friday, posting more than 4,800 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 82 more deaths.

The new record for cases of COVID-19 — 4,813 — is 124 more than the previous record, 4,689, set on July 18. The previous record for deaths reported in a day was 81, set on Wednesday.

Friday’s record number of new cases marks the fourth time since the pandemic began that Georgia posted more than 4,000 cases, as well as the 15th time the state has posted more than 3,000 cases.

Those who test positive for COVID-19 don’t necessarily become ill — in some cases, they may not even show symptoms — but they can spread the coronavirus to others who are vulnerable.

Georgia’s health department also reported 399 more hospitalizations.

CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS

The Georgia Department of Public Health reported a total of 161,401 confirmed cases of COVID-19 at 2:50 p.m. Friday. That's 4,813 more than was reported at the same time Thursday.

Georgia also reported 3,442 deaths so far from COVID-19, 82 more that reported Thursday. In addition, the state reported 16,752 hospitalizations — 399 more than the day before — and 3,119 admissions to intensive-care units.

No information is available from Georgia about how many patients have recovered.

Counties in or near metro Atlanta continue to have the highest number of positives, with Fulton County again adding more than 500 new cases on Friday, pushing it past 15,000 total for the first time.

• Fulton County: 15,221 cases — 548 new
• Gwinnett County: 14,801 cases — 359 new
• DeKalb County: 10,767 cases — 287 new
• Cobb County: 9,717 cases — 337 new
• Hall County: 4,789 cases — 83 new

Counties in or near metro Atlanta also continue to have the most deaths from COVID-19. The lone exception is Dougherty County, the site of Georgia's first major outbreak, which since then has largely stabilized. DeKalb County hit a milestone Friday, posting more than 200 deaths total for the first time.

• Fulton County: 365 deaths
• Cobb County: 282 deaths
• Gwinnett County: 213 deaths
• DeKalb County: 204 deaths
• Dougherty County: 160 deaths

As of Friday, Georgia has administered nearly 1.6 million COVID-19 tests, with about 13 percent of those tests the less reliable ones used to detect antibodies.

For the more reliable test for the virus itself, 10.6 percent of tests came back positive. For the less reliable test for antibodies, 6 percent came back positive. The overall positive rate was about 10 percent.

As more Georgians were tested over the last few weeks, positive percentages for both the virus test and tests overall have inched upward. On July 6, the percentage of tests overall that came back positive was only 8.7 percent.

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

Globally, nearly 15.6 million people have been infected by COVID-19, and more than 635,000 people have died, Johns Hopkins University reported Friday.

In the United States, more than 4 million people have been infected and more than 144,000 people have died from COVID-19 as of Friday. The U.S. has only about 4 percent of the world's population but more confirmed cases and deaths than any other country.

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