Health & Fitness
Two Different Tests Still Counted To Show GA Coronavirus Numbers
It's still unclear how many COVID-19 tests were only for antibodies. Georgia promises to straighten that out "as soon as possible."
ATLANTA, GA — The number of Georgians who've tested positive for the coronavirus continued to rise as the nation celebrates Memorial Day. The number of tests have risen as well, with more than half a million tests administered, more than 100,000 in the last week alone.
Those test numbers come with a caveat, though: They still combine tests for antibodies and tests for the disease itself. The state's website promises to separate the two types of test "as soon as possible." Gov. Brian Kemp apologized on May 21 for counting both types of tests as proof that a person didn't have COVID-19.
At 1 p.m. Monday, the Georgia Department of Public Health counted 43,344 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 1,830 deaths. More than 513,000 tests are reported to have been administered so far. Almost 7,500 Georgians have been hospitalized for COVID-19, with almost 1,700 of them admitted to an intensive-care unit for it.
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Counties in or near metro Atlanta continue to have the highest number of cases, with Fulton County in first place with 4,065 confirmed positives. DeKalb is second with 3,275, Gwinnett is third with 3,116, Cobb is fourth with 2,739 and Hall is fifth with 2,319. Today’s statistics also identify 2,607 cases of COVID-19 as from “unknown” counties, with 2,000 cases counted as “Non-Georgia.”
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Fulton County reports the most deaths, with 196, followed by Cobb County, with 142. Dougherty County in southwest Georgia, site of the state’s earliest hotspot, has dropped to third with 139 deaths. Rounding out the top five counties are Gwinnett in fourth with 121 deaths and DeKalb in fifth with 102 deaths.
While all 159 counties in Georgia have by now reported at least one case of COVID-19, about 39 percent of them — all rural — have reported no more than one death. Thirty-one counties — again, all rural — have reported no deaths at all.
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