GA Reports 78 COVID-19 Deaths Tuesday, Highest 1-Day Total

ATLANTA, GA — Georgia reported 78 deaths over the last 24 hours from COVID-19 on Tuesday, the highest one-day total since the coronavirus pandemic began.

According to the Georgia Department of Health's website, the previous highest number of deaths reported on any single day was 59, reported on April 16.

However, Georgia's website cautions that numbers on any given day — both high or low — may not accurately represent overall trends because of lag times in sending numbers to the state. For example, Georgia reported on Monday only three deaths, an unusually low number given recent trends.

What's more, different outlets tabulate their numbers differently. For example, The New York Times reported that Georgia's single-day high was 85, posted on April 20.

Still, the number of reported cases is trending upward no matter whose figures you follow. Increased death rates generally follow increased case rates.

Georgia's health department reported 3,413 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 since Monday, topping 3,000 new cases for the 12th time in July. In addition, Georgia reported 447 new hospitalizations.

The numbers come as public officials disagree on safety measures Georgians should take.

On Tuesday morning, a judge who was to have settled a spat over masks recused herself. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kelly Ellerbe had been set to rule on a lawsuit filed by Gov. Brian Kemp’s office against Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms over a citywide mask mandate. A second judge also had to bow out of the case because of a conflict.

The hearing will now have to be rescheduled with a new judge, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Also on Tuesday, Georgia Superintendent of Schools Richard Woods said local districts have the freedom to deal with the pandemic as they see fit, and promised his “full support” no matter what they do.

To assist in tracking the pandemic, Gov. Kemp announced Tuesday that Georgia would work with Mako Medical to test more quickly, promising results in an average 48 hours.

Coronavirus Numbers

The Georgia Department of Public Health reported a total of 148,988 confirmed cases of COVID-19 at 2:50 p.m. Tuesday. That's 3,413 more than was reported at the same time Monday.

Georgia also reported 3,254 deaths so far from COVID-19, 78 more that reported Monday. In addition, the state reported 15,010 hospitalizations —447 more than the day before — and 2,904 admissions 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 Gwinnett County still in the lead while Fulton County steadily gains ground.

• Gwinnett County: 13,878 cases — 264 new
• Fulton County: 13,779 cases — 400 new
• DeKalb County: 9,950 cases — 150 new
• Cobb County: 8,759 cases — 249 new
• Hall County: 4,394 cases — 108 new

Counties in or near metro Atlanta also continue to have the most deaths from COVID-19. The lone exception is Dougherty County, the site of Georgia's first major outbreak, which since then has largely stabilized.

• Fulton County: 348 deaths
• Cobb County: 267 deaths
• Gwinnett County: 204 deaths
• DeKalb County: 190 deaths
• Dougherty County: 158 deaths

As of Tuesday, Georgia has administered nearly 1.5 million COVID-19 tests, with about 14 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, 5.9 percent came back positive. The overall positive rate was about 9.9 percent.

As more Georgians were tested over the last few weeks, positive percentages for both the virus test and tests overall have inched upward. On July 6, the percentage of tests overall that came back positive was only 8.7 percent.

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

Globally, more than 14.4 million people have been infected by COVID-19, and more than 611,000 people have died, Johns Hopkins University reported Tuesday.

In the United States, more than 3.8 million people have been infected and more than 141,000 people have died from COVID-19 as of Sunday. The U.S. has only about 4 percent of the world's population but more confirmed cases and deaths than any other country.

An earlier version of this article compared Georgia's COVID-19 figures with figures from The New York Times. Patch apologizes for the error.

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