GA Coronavirus Numbers Level But Still In Red Zone: White House

ATLANTA, GA — The coronavirus numbers may be leveling off in Georgia, but not even the White House thinks the state is out of the woods yet.

In the latest report from the White House Coronavirus Task Force, released Monday, Georgia remains in the Red Zone for cases per capita, ranking 14th highest in the United States.

“We’re seeing fewer patients in our hospitals,” Dr. Danny Branstetter of Wellstar Health System said to WSB-TV’s Matt Johnson. “That’s good. But we still see patients who are severely ill.”

According to the White House report, 75 percent of Georgia counties are experiencing moderate-to-high levels of community spread.

In the absence of effective contact tracing, monitoring wastewater may be a good way to detect coronavirus flareups early.

This week’s White House report and the previous week’s report both suggested testing wastewater for the coronavirus. And according to WXIA-TV in Atlanta, researchers at the University of Georgia are already doing just that in Athens.

Dr. Erin Lipp of UGA’s College of Public Health told the Atlanta TV station that the coronavirus appears to be shed from feces in the early stages of infection. That means its appearance in wastewater can predict an outbreak about a week later.

“It’s a great way to get a snapshot of what’s happening in a community,” Lipp said.

GEORGIA CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS FOR WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 23

The Georgia Department of Public Health in Atlanta reported a total of 309,678 confirmed cases of COVID-19 at 2:50 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 23. According to the health department’s website, that includes 1,577 newly confirmed cases over the last 24 hours.

Georgia also reported 6,773 deaths so far from COVID-19, with 98 more deaths recorded in the last 24 hours. In addition, the state reported 27,749 hospitalizations — 259 more than the day before — and 5,077 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: 27,247 cases — 125 new
• Gwinnett County: 26,931 cases — 187 new
• Cobb County: 19,283 cases — 109 new
• DeKalb County: 18,302 cases — 110 new
• Hall County: 8,949 cases — 85 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: 568 deaths — 3 new
• Cobb County: 422 deaths — 1 new
• Gwinnett County: 398 deaths — 2 new
• DeKalb County: 353 deaths — 2 new
• Dougherty County: 185 deaths — 2 new

As of Wednesday, Georgia has administered nearly 3.1 million COVID-19 tests, with about 10 percent of those tests the less reliable ones used to detect antibodies.

For the more reliable test for the virus itself, 10.3 percent of tests came back positive. For the less reliable test for antibodies, 8.2 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 about 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 31.7 million people have tested positive for COVID-19, and more than 973,000 people have died from it, Johns Hopkins University reported Wednesday.

In the United States, more than 6.9 million people have been infected and more than 201,000 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.