Georgia reports 43,400 coronavirus cases. Here’s the breakdown.

The Georgia Department of Public Health confirmed 43,400 cases of COVID-19 at 7 p.m. Monday, an increase of 79 cases from Monday morning.

Statewide, 1,848 people have now died from the novel coronavirus, an increase of 21 since Monday morning.

Overall, 7,507 people have been hospitalized with COVID-19. However, state officials acknowledge this number is likely an underestimation.

The Georgia Public Health Laboratory and private labs have performed 513,545 coronavirus tests, but at least 57,000 of those are antibody tests.

Viral tests measure current infections while antibody tests check for past, likely infections. A positive antibody test by itself is not listed as a confirmed COVID-19 case. The antibody tests will soon be removed from the tally of total tests performed, health officials previously said.

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

For 2,294 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 1,986 non-Georgia residents tested positive for COVID-19. State health officials previously said these numbers account for out-of-state residents whose health care provider is located in Georgia.

Breakdown by county

This story was originally published May 25, 2020 at 9:35 AM.

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.