GA Tops 3K COVID-19 Cases As State Restrictions Set To Expire

ATLANTA, GA — Georgia reported nearly 4,000 new cases of COVID-19 in Wednesday’s daily report, the seventh time the number of new coronavirus cases has surpassed 3,000 since the pandemic began.

The state’s health department reported 3,871 new cases and 37 more deaths since Tuesday from COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

At midnight Wednesday, an executive order by Gov. Brian Kemp that requires social distancing, mandatory business health standards and gatherings of no more than 50 people is set to expire. As of Wednesday afternoon, Kemp’s office had said nothing about whether or not he plans to extend the order. However, his office did announce Wednesday that it would work with Piedmont Healthcare for increased hospital capacity and UPS for delivery of personal protective equipment.

Wednesday’s health-department report also comes on the same day that Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, mandated that shoppers wear masks starting on July 20.

Meanwhile, as the number of Georgia cases continues to spike, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has pledged help to Atlanta in the form of contact tracers and supplies. On July 10 — the day Georgia set a one-day record for most new COVID-19 cases — Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms rolled the city back to Phase 1 status, which includes shelter in place and mandated masks. Those restrictions clashed with Kemp’s more relaxed standards, which led to a public sniping between the two.

THE NUMBERS

The Georgia Department of Public Health reported a total of 127,834 confirmed cases of COVID-19 at 2:50 p.m. Wednesday. That's 3,871 more than was reported at the same time Tuesday. Georgia’s record for most new COVID-19 cases in a day is 4,484, set on July 10.

Georgia also reported 3,091 deaths so far from COVID-19, 37 more that reported Tuesday. In addition, the state reported 14,102 hospitalizations — 417 more than the day before — and 2,702 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, still in the lead, passed 12,000 total cases as of Wednesday. Just north of the metro, Hall County, home to much of Georgia’s poultry-processing industry, passed the 4,000 mark.

• Gwinnett County: 12,217 cases — 335 new
• Fulton County: 11,746 cases — 392 new
• DeKalb County: 8,980 cases — 196 new
• Cobb County: 7,571 cases — 183 new
• Hall County: 4,012 cases — 84 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.

• Fulton County: 331 deaths
• Cobb County: 256 deaths
• Gwinnett County: 189 deaths
• DeKalb County: 186 deaths
• Dougherty County: 156 deaths

As of Wednesday, 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, 10.1 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 9.4 percent.

Positive percentages for both the virus test and tests overall have been inching up over the last week. On July 6, the percentage of tests overall that came back positive was 8.7 percent.

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

Globally, more than 13.4 million people have been infected by COVID-19, and more than 580,000 people have died, Johns Hopkins University reported Wednesday.

In the United States, more than 3.4 million people have been infected and nearly 137,000 people have died from COVID-19 as of Wednesday. 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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