132 GA Counties In Coronavirus Red Zone: White House Task Force

ATLANTA, GA — Georgia will soon see more deaths as hospitalizations in the state spike and 83 percent of its counties fall into the red zone, according to the latest report from the White House Coronavirus Task Force.

In the latest report issued Sunday, 132 of Georgia's 159 counties are experiencing high levels of coronavirus transmission. Nearly all Georgia counties — 93 percent — are experiencing at least moderate levels of transmission.

The White House report shows Georgia ranking 26th for new cases of COVID-19. Last week, Georgia ranked 41st. Georgia also has the 12th highest rate of new hospital admissions for COVID-19, according to the report.

Those numbers were supported by Wednesday’s health-department numbers, which show Georgia exceeding 40,000 total hospitalizations for COVID-19 for the first time.

Carried by yesterday’s record-breaking one-day total, Georgia’s moving seven-day average for new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday hit 5,144.6, its highest point yet. The number of new COVID-19 cases reported over the last 24 hours — 5,221 — was only slightly higher.

"Georgia continues to deteriorate with rising cases and hospitalizations," the White House report said. "Mitigation must increase to flatten the curve and stop the depth and breadth of community spread."

Georgia Coronavirus Numbers For Dec. 23, 2020

The Georgia Department of Public Health in Atlanta reported a total of 524,055 confirmed cases of COVID-19 at 2:50 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 23. According to the health department’s website, that includes 5,221 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 over the last 24 hours. In addition, Georgia reported 2,846 new antigen-positive cases over the last 24 hours, which are considered to be probable cases of COVID-19.

Georgia has reported 9,554 deaths so far from COVID-19, with 55 more confirmed deaths recorded in the last 24 hours. Georgia also reported 965 probable deaths from COVID-19 since the pandemic began. These probable deaths include fatalities with indirect evidence of COVID-19.

Georgia reported 40,139 hospitalizations — 303 more than the day before — and 7,148 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 and other metropolitan areas continue to have the highest number of COVID-19 positives, with Gwinnett County back in the lead and Fulton County close behind it. These statistics do not include antigen-positive cases.

1. Gwinnett County: 47,115 cases — 578 new
2. Fulton County: 47,032 cases — 495 new
3. Cobb County: 33,621 cases — 291 new
4. DeKalb County: 32,530 cases — 313 new
5. Hall County: 16,193 cases — 185 new
6. Clayton County: 12,287 — 96 new
7. Chatham County: 12,209 — 113 new
8. Richmond County: 11,865 — 88 new
9. Cherokee County: 11,575 — 106 new
10. Whitfield County: 10,105 — 112 new

Counties in or near metro Atlanta also continue to have the most deaths from COVID-19.

1. Fulton County: 724 deaths — 6 new
2. Gwinnett County: 546 deaths —3 new
3. Cobb County: 537 deaths
4. DeKalb County: 474 deaths — 4 new
5. Bibb County: 234 deaths
6. Chatham County: 224 deaths — 1 new
7. Richmond County: 213 deaths
8. Clayton County: 213 deaths — 4 new
9. Hall County: 210 deaths — 1 new
10. Dougherty County: 202 deaths

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

Globally, more than 78.4 million people have tested positive for COVID-19, and more than 1.72 million people have died from it, Johns Hopkins University reported Wednesday.

In the United States, more than 18.3 million people have been infected and more than 324,000 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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