GA Coronavirus: Close To 6,000 Deaths As Labor Day Nears

Cartersville GA

05 September, 2020

4:24 PM

Description

ATLANTA, GA — As Georgia enters the Labor Day holiday weekend, the state continues to report a slowing increase in coronavirus numbers — but they are still increasing. In Saturday's report, two metro Atlanta counties passed milestones, with Gwinnett County exceeding 25,000 cases and DeKalb County exceeding 17,000 cases. Also, the total number of deaths in Georgia caused by the coronavirus was 5,977 as of Saturday. It will probably pass 6,000 on Sunday. GEORGIA CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS The Georgia Department of Public Health reported a total of 281,548 confirmed cases of COVID-19 at 2:50 p.m. Saturday. According to the health department's website, that includes 2,285 newly confirmed cases over the last 24 hours. Georgia also reported 5,977 deaths so far from COVID-19, with 48 more deaths recorded in the last 24 hours. In addition, the state reported 25,501 hospitalizations — 99 more than the day before — and 4,681 admissions so far 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 still in the lead. Fulton County: 25,540 cases — 101 newGwinnett County: 25,019 cases — 149 newCobb County: 17,595 cases — 116 newDeKalb County: 17,004 cases — 104 newHall County: 8,118 cases — 95 new Counties in or near metro Atlanta also continue to have the most deaths from COVID-19. The lone exception is Dougherty County, site of Georgia's first major outbreak. Fulton County: 541 deaths — 6 newCobb County: 401 deathsGwinnett County: 356 deaths — 5 newDeKalb County: 313 deaths — 2 newDougherty County: 180 deaths As of Saturday, Georgia has administered more than 2.7 million COVID-19 tests, with about 10.3 percent of those tests the less reliable ones used to detect antibodies. For the more reliable test for the virus itself, 10.5 percent of tests came back positive. For the less reliable test for antibodies, 7.8 percent came back positive. The overall positive rate was about 10.2 percent. As more Georgians were tested over the last month, the percentage of positive tests inched upward from about 8 percent to more than 10 percent. However, over the last few weeks, the percentage of positives has stabilized at just more than 10 percent. According to the World Health Organization, positive test results should no more than 5 percent for two weeks before reopening for business as usual. Georgia largely reopened for business in April and May, and since then Gov. Brian Kemp has promoted the use of face masks but has steadfastly refused to mandate them. All Georgia statistics are available on the state's COVID-19 website. Globally, more than 26.7 million people have tested positive for COVID-19, and nearly 876,000 people have died from it, Johns Hopkins University reported Saturday. In the United States, more than 6.2 million people have been infected and more than 188,000 people have died from COVID-19 as of Saturday. The U.S. has only about 4 percent of the world's population but more confirmed cases and deaths than any other country.