ATLANTA — As Atlanta sees a fifth day of mass protests, Georgia’s top health official worries the large gatherings will cause further spread of COVID-19.

With social distancing nearly impossible in a group of hundreds — although many wear masks — it may not be enough to stop coronavirus from making its way through protesters and law enforcement.

Dr. Kathleen Toomey, commissioner of the Department of Public Health, said Tuesday that all areas of Georgia that are seeing protests — not just Atlanta — run the risk of additional viral spread throughout their communities.

“When you have this many people gathered together in close proximity,” she said, “you run the risk of viral transmission.”

Toomey said the department is in the process of setting up testing sites for protesters and law enforcement to try to identify and mitigate new infections as quickly as possible.

“We want to ensure that the pandemic doesn’t spread because of this,” she said.

Gov. Brian Kemp said there was “a lot of tension” throughout Georgia and the country due to the pandemic before the death of George Floyd that sparked nationwide protests. Georgia’s strained health care system, record high unemployment and the death of Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick has only attributed to feelings of anger.

“There was a lot of tension, even before this happened because of the pandemic,” he said. “It’s just an unusual time in our state, in our country.”

The mobilized response of the Georgia National Guard to assist in containment of the protests has pulled guardsmen off testing sites which. Toomey said, will likely cause testing numbers to drop.

Many of the national guard are stationed throughout Georgia’s nursing homes and assisted-living facilities, a target of sweeping infection control efforts after the state’s elderly population was hit hard in many of the homes.

Adj. General Tom Carden of the Georgia National Guard said at this point in the protests, he does not think additional guardsmen need to be mobilized.

But with Atlanta’s protests going on nearly a week, demonstrators have said they have no plans to stop and more rallies continue to pop-up across the state.