Coronavirus in Georgia: More than 45,000 cases confirmed, nearly 2,000 deaths

The Georgia Department of Public Health confirmed 45,266 statewide coronavirus cases at 7 p.m. Thursday, an increase of 334 from Thursday morning.

There was an increase of 628 new cases reported from 7 p.m. Wednesday to 7 p.m. Thursday.

Statewide, 1,973 people have now died from the novel coronavirus, an increase of 16 since 9 a.m. Thursday.

The Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency reports that 902 people are currently hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19 infections as of May 28. This count does not include people who are being investigated by health officials to determine if they have the illness.

The Georgia Public Health Laboratory and private labs have performed 523,359 coronavirus tests, but 78,173 of those are antibody tests according to the latest data.

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.

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 1,319 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 1,903 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 28, 2020 at 9:38 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.