Georgia adds nearly 3,200 COVID-19 cases Saturday

Published 2:30 pm Saturday, July 11, 2020

ATLANTA — A day after Georgia set a new record for COVID-19 cases overnight with 4,484, the state added 3,190 new cases Saturday.

As of Saturday, the Peach State totaled 114,401 confirmed coronavirus cases. Fatalities are increasing as well, totaling 2,996 deaths since the start of the outbreak. 

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On Tuesday — just more than four months since the first confirmed cases in Georgia — the state reached a grim milestone of more than 100,000 reported cases.

The number comes after steep increases in cases reported daily across the state in the past week or so. 

As of Saturday, 13,205 Georgians have been hospitalized since the beginning of the pandemic and 2,610 admitted to intensive care units. 

According to the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, 2,446 people are currently hospitalized.

In new data added to the Department of Public Health daily status report, Georgia reported 268 new hospitalizations in the last 24 hours.

Georgia’s available hospital capacity is dwindling. As of Thursday, only 17% of the state’s critical care beds and 17% of general inpatient beds were available, according to GEMA. Less than half of the state’s emergency room beds are available. However, 65% of the state’s ventilators are available.

Gov. Brian Kemp’s office announced Friday the state is reactivating its makeshift hospital in the Georgia World Congress Center. The decision was made after a call with the state’s hospital executives, Kemp’s staff said, in an effort to continue elective procedures and avoid additional financial hardships and staff furloughs.

Patients are trending younger and in less need of acute care, the governor’s office said. With treatment strategies such as the use of antiviral medication remdesivir, the average Georgia hospital stay has been cut in half from 14 to seven days.

The state has conducted more than one million viral tests and is reporting a 9.7% positive rate.

About 180,366 Georgians have had antibody tests conducted — that show past signs of infection — from which the state is reporting a 5.1% positive rate.

Georgians ages 18 to 29 are now the prominent age group for reported infections, while Georgians ages 50 and older still report significantly more deaths.