New COVID-19 Cases In GA Nearly 4K For Second Straight Day

ATLANTA, GA — While politicians argued Thursday over masks, Georgia reported nearly 4,000 new cases of COVID-19 for a second day in a row.

The health department’s tally of 3,891 new cases marked the eighth day so far in July that one-day increases in cases have topped 3,000. It’s also the second most new COVID-19 cases in a day reported in Georgia since the pandemic started.

At the same time, the state’s health department reported only 13 more deaths Thursday, 24 fewer than reported the day before.

Thursday’s report was issued as Georgia’s political leaders bickered over who can mandate masks. After more than a dozen Georgia localities ordered that face masks be worn, Gov. Brian Kemp voided those orders Wednesday as “unenforceable.”

Local leaders fired back. Soon after Kemp’s order, Mayor Van Johnson of Savannah, where masks are required, tweeted that the governor “does not give a damn about us.”

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms took it a step further Thursday afternoon and said via virtual news conference that “our policies are enforceable and they stand,” essentially daring the governor to take action. By Thursday evening, Kemp had done just that, suing the city "on behalf of the Atlanta business owners and their hardworking employees."

Lance Bottoms, a Democrat being considered to run for vice president with presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden, has feuded with Republican Kemp publicly over coronavirus measures and Black Lives Matter protests.

THE NUMBERS

The Georgia Department of Public Health reported a total of 131,275 confirmed cases of COVID-19 at 2:50 p.m. Thursday. That's 3,891 more than was reported at the same time Wednesday. Georgia’s record for most new COVID-19 cases in a day is 4,484, set on July 10.

Georgia also reported 3,104 deaths so far from COVID-19, 13 more that reported Wednesday. In addition, the state reported 14,346 hospitalizations — 244 more than the day before — and 2,736 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. Gwinnett County is still in the lead, but Fulton County joined it in posting 12,000-plus cases by adding more than 400 positive tests on Thursday.

• Gwinnett County: 12,489 cases — 272 new
• Fulton County: 12,184 cases — 438 new
• DeKalb County: 9,165 cases — 185 new
• Cobb County: 7,713 cases — 142 new
• Hall County: 4,130 cases — 118 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, which since then has largely stabilized and hasn’t recorded a new death in days.

• Fulton County: 333 deaths
• Cobb County: 258 deaths
• Gwinnett County: 191 deaths
• DeKalb County: 186 deaths
• Dougherty County: 156 deaths

As of Thursday, more than 1.3 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, 10.2 percent of tests came back positive. For the less reliable test for antibodies, 5.3 percent came back positive. The overall positive rate was about 9.5 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, more than 13.6 million people have been infected by COVID-19, and more than 580,000 people have died, Johns Hopkins University reported Thursday.

In the United States, more than 3.5 million people have been infected and nearly 138,000 people have died from COVID-19 as of Thursday. The U.S. has only about 4 percent of the world's population but more confirmed cases and deaths than any other country.

OTHER NEWS:

• Gov. Kemp's Office Files Lawsuit To Block Mayor's Mask Mandate
• Face Mask Mandates Struck Down By Kemp, Leaders Furious
• Wear A Mask In Walmart Or Face Consequences: Gwinnett County