Coronavirus Testing Urged If You Went To Labor Day Parties: Kemp

ATLANTA, GA — Did you celebrate Labor Day with friends or family last weekend? If so, you might want to get tested for the coronavirus.

Gov. Brian Kemp told WSB-TV’s Richard Elliot on Thursday that one way to keep Georgia’s numbers trending downward is to get tested if you may have been exposed to the coronavirus.

“If you were in those environments, you may have let your guard down a little,” Kemp said to Elliot. “Go ahead and get tested.”

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

With Georgia’s testing capabilities ramped up but underused, Kemp said now is the perfect time to be tested for the coronavirus.

Georgia’s Friday afternoon report continues to show a downward trend, with only fewer than 1,900 new cases of the COVID-19 virus and fewer than 50 deaths.

GEORGIA CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS

The Georgia Department of Public Health reported a total of 290,781 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 virus at 2:50 p.m. Friday. According to the health department’s website, that includes 1,863 newly confirmed cases over the last 24 hours.

Georgia also reported 6,246 deaths so far from COVID-19, with 46 more deaths recorded in the last 24 hours. In addition, the state reported 26,163 hospitalizations — 101 more than the day before — and 4,794 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 and passing 26,000 cases for the first time Friday.

• Fulton County: 26,022 cases — 88 new
• Gwinnett County: 25,611 cases — 116 new
• Cobb County: 18,255 cases — 100 new
• DeKalb County: 17,380 cases — 66 new
• Hall County: 8,306 cases — 40 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: 551 deaths — 1 new
• Cobb County: 409 deaths
• Gwinnett County: 369 deaths —3 new
• DeKalb County: 334 deaths — 1 new
• Dougherty County: 181 deaths

As of Friday, Georgia has administered more than 2.8 million coronavirus tests, with about 10.1 percent of those tests the less-reliable ones used to detect antibodies.

For the more-reliable test for the virus itself, 10.4 percent of tests came back positive. For the less-reliable test for antibodies, 7.9 percent came back positive. The overall positive rate was about 10.1 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 and is now starting to slowly drop. 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, 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 28.2 million people have tested positive for COVID-19, and more than 911,000 people have died from it, Johns Hopkins University reported Friday.

In the United States, more than 6.4 million people have been infected and more than 192,000 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.