18K Vials Of Remdesivir Given To GA Hospitals As Deaths Near 2K

GEORGIA — As Georgia nears 2,000 deaths from the coronavirus, the Georgia Department of Public Health this week is distributing 18,440 vials of the drug remdesivir received from the federal government. Nearly 85 hospitals in Georgia will receive remdesivir, enough to treat about 1,676 patients with COVID-19 infection, depending on the duration of an individual’s illness and treatment needs.

Remdesivir is an antiviral medicine being used to treat hospitalized patients with serious symptoms caused by COVID-19 like low oxygen levels or pneumonia. It has been found to shorten the duration of disease in patients being treated in inpatient hospital settings. Remdesivir is given intravenously and decreases the amount of coronavirus in the body, helping patients recover faster.

At 1 p.m. Friday, the Georgia Department of Public Health reported 532,007 tests for COVID-19, of which about 15 percent are the serology or antibody tests. From those tests, Georgia reports 45,670 cases of COVID-19. That's about 8.5 percent positive, a slight increase from previous numbers.

So far Georgia has recorded 1,974 deaths from the coronavirus, with 7,852 hospitalizations and 1,780 admissions to an intensive-care unit.

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Georgia hospitals receiving remdesivir had patients who met the federal criteria for treatment including COVID-19 positive patients on ventilators, in addition to patients currently being treated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, a machine that takes over the work of the heart and lungs.

Remdesivir has not been approved by the FDA for widespread use because it is considered investigational and it is still being studied. Remdesivir was originally developed for use against Ebola. Clinical trials for remdesivir were done in Georgia at Emory University Hospital.

Counties in or near metro Atlanta continue to have the highest number of cases, with Fulton County in first with 4,425 confirmed positives. Gwinnett is second with 3,681, DeKalb is third with 3,662, Cobb is fourth with 2,971 and Hall is fifth with 2,459. Today's statistics also identify 1,274 cases of COVID-19 as from "unknown" counties, with 1,972 cases counted as "Non-Georgia."

More of Georgia's businesses will soon be able to reopen their doors after Gov. Brian Kemp announced Thursday when bars, nightclubs and amusement parks can reopen.

Kemp said the next step moving forward "puts the health and well-being of the citizenry first." His newest executive order extended certain safety precautions, but also eased others.

"Restrictions still remain intact to keep every Georgia business employee's and their customers safe," he said. "For several weeks now, gatherings of 10 or more people in a single location have been banned in Georgia unless there is 6 feet between each person. Given favorable data, we feel comfortable incrementally increasing that number to 25. Starting June 1, you can have gatherings of more than 25 people in a single location if you have at least 6 feet between each person."

On June 1, bars and nightclubs can reopen if they comply with "strict sanitation and social distancing rules all crafted to reflect industry practices and mitigate health risks," Kemp said. Bars and nightclubs must meet 39 mandatory measures to ensure patron well-being.

Professional and amateur sports teams which hold practices or other in-person operations are also now able to resume in Georgia. The professional teams will have to follow the respective guidelines from the national leagues, Kemp said. All amateur sports that will resume in-person operations must follow the guidelines for non-critical infrastructure organizations.

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