COVINGTON, Ga. — Georgia has now exceeded 1,000 cases of COVID-19, the state said Tuesday.
Tuesday’s daily status updates from the Georgia Department of Public Health, both the noon and 7.pm. updates, showed two new cases involving a Newton County resident bringing the total to six cases in Newton. The state is up to 1,097 confirmed cases of the virus and 38 deaths.
The state has also started to report the number of hospitalized patients. As of the 7 p.m. update, 361 people are hospitalized due to COVID-19.
The total number of cases in the state has jumped dramatically since Sunday evening when the DPH reported 620 cases and 25 deaths.
State officials said the large increase of cases over the past two days is in part a reflection on an improvement in electronic reporting efficiency from commercial laboratories, which often have sparse patient data.
DPH is working to complete the records.
Out of 5,484 total tests, 1,378 were done at the GDPH lap with 190 testing positive. At commercial labs, 907 of the 4,106 tests have returned positive for COVID-19.
The state said 91% of cases involve patients 18 and older, but just 35% of the cases are in patients 60 and older.
Of the surrounding counties, Gwinnett has the most confirmed cases at 46 followed by Henry with 13, Rockdale with eight, Butts at two and Morgan County with one. Walton County and Jasper County each had confirmed cases for the first time on Tuesday.
The state confirmed a positive diagnosis of a Walton resident at noon Tuesday. Walton had gone more than a week through daily, and later twice-daily, updates on COVID-19 tests before getting a positive diagnosis in a resident.
A confirmed case had been reported earlier in a worker at the Hitachi Automotive Systems Americas Inc. plant in Monroe, but that person lives in neighboring Gwinnett County.
Information about the patient, including sex, age and location, were not available.
Fulton County, the site of the first confirmed case in Georgia, still has the most confirmed cases at 191. Cobb County (90), Dekalb (107), Dougherty (101) and Bartow (76) all have over 70 confirmed cases. 79 of the cases in Georgia are still unknown.
Gov. Brian Kemp on Monday issued an executive order requiring Georgians who are at risk of contracting the virus to stay home. He ordered bars and nightclubs closed and prohibited gatherings of 10 or more people.
