Georgia reports nearly 27,500 coronavirus cases statewide. Here’s a breakdown

The Georgia Department of Public Health at 7:25 p.m. Friday confirmed 27,496 cases of COVID-19 in the state, up by 362 from noon.

Georgia reported 26,260 cases at 7 p.m. Thursday. Over a 24-hour period, Georgia reported 1,236 new cases.

Statewide, 1,166 people have now died from the novel coronavirus, an increase of 19 since noon.

The increase in new cases comes as Georgia continues to increase its testing capacity. The Georgia Public Health Laboratory and private labs have processed a total of 168,367 COVID-19 tests as of Friday evening, an increase of more than 19,000 tests from Thursday evening. That’s the largest increase in tests to date, beating numbers cited by Gov. Brian Kemp earlier this week.

The state health department reports 5,309 people have been hospitalized due to the virus.

State health officials have not provided a breakdown of the residents tested for COVID-19 in each county. The state is also not tracking the number of people who have recovered from COVID-19.

For 647 cases, the state is reporting the counties as “unknown.” The person may be homeless or medical professionals may not have entered the person’s county of residence into the state’s electronic database, health officials have previously said.

The state health department also reported that 1,076 non-Georgia residents tested positive for COVID-19. State health officials previously said these numbers account for out of state residents whose healthcare provider is located in Georgia.

Following the recent update, it appears the Georgia Department of Public Health is updating its case and death tolls nearly every two hours.

Breakdown by county

This story was originally published May 1, 2020 at 12:22 PM.

Nick Wooten

Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

Nick Wooten is the Accountability/Investigative reporter for the Ledger-Enquirer where he is responsible for covering several topics, including Georgia politics. His work may also appear in the Macon Telegraph. Nick was given the Georgia Press Association’s 2021 Emerging Journalist award for his coverage of elections, COVID-19 and Columbus’ LGBTQ+ community. Before joining McClatchy, he worked for The (Shreveport La.) Times covering city government and investigations. He is a graduate of Mercer University in Macon, Georgia.