GA Sees Lowest Coronavirus Hospitalizations Since April

GEORGIA — Gov. Brian Kemp said Tuesday that Georgia reached its lowest number of COVID-19 positive patients hospitalized since hospitals started reporting data to the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency on April 8.

At 986 COVID-19 positive patients currently hospitalized as of Tuesday, Georgia has seen an approximate 12 percent decrease over the last week with 1,125 patients hospitalized on May 12, and a 34 percent decrease from 1,500 patients hospitalized on May 1. As of Wednesday, the number dropped further to 959 people currently hospitalized.

"Our hospitalization numbers continue to show encouraging signs in our fight against COVID-19, but we must remain vigilant in our efforts to combat this virus," Kemp said. "I continue to ask Georgians to practice social distancing, follow the advice of public health officials, and protect the elderly and medically fragile."

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In its 1 p.m. report on Wednesday, the Georgia Department of Public Health counted 39,647 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 1,687 deaths. More than 402,000 tests for the coronavirus have been administered so far, with about 10 percent shown to be positive. More than 7,100 Georgians have been hospitalized for COVID-19, with a little more than 1,600 of them admitted to an intensive-care unit for it.

This is an increase of 1,023 new confirmed cases and 38 new deaths from Tuesday's 1 p.m. numbers report.

Counties in or near metro Atlanta continue to have the highest number of cases, with Fulton County ranking at the top with 3,801 confirmed positives. DeKalb is second with 2,940, Gwinnett is third with 2,787, Cobb is fourth with 2,565 and Hall is fifth with 2,216. Today's statistics also identify 2,550 cases of COVID-19 as from "unknown" counties, with 1,659 cases counted as "Non-Georgia."

Fulton County reports the most deaths, with 174. Dougherty County in southwest Georgia, site of the state's earliest hotspot, is second with 139 deaths. Rounding out the top five counties are Cobb in third with 135 deaths, Gwinnett in fourth with 115 deaths and DeKalb in fifth with 87 deaths.

While all 159 counties in Georgia have by now reported at least one case of COVID-19, about 40 percent of them — all rural — have reported no more than one death

Two challenges to interpreting the data have been lag time — today's numbers don't necessarily represent what happened today — and inconsistencies in reporting. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on May1 3 that updates from the state have shown the number of deaths actually dropping and children mistakenly shown as having died. The state's website makes a point of apologizing for the error, saying "we are working diligently to provide the most accurate information, and we apologize for any confusion."

Still, even today, numbers change over time in ways that aren't immediately explainable. For example, in numbers released at 1 p.m., an hour after the figures reported above, Appling County showed one more death — yet the total number of deaths for Georgia remained constant.

For those who want to crunch the numbers for themselves, the Georgia Department of Health now offers downloadable spreadsheets on its COVID-19 landing page with some of the data on total numbers. The state updates its coronavirus numbers at least twice a day, with overall status reports posted on the website at 9 a.m., 1 p.m., and 7 p.m. daily.

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