COVID-19: GA Sets Second-Highest Day Record, Gwinnett Passes 10K

ATLANTA, GA — For a second day in a row, Georgia came close to setting a record for newly confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to the state’s health department.

The Georgia Department of Public Health reported a total of 103,890 confirmed cases of COVID-19 at 2:54 p.m. Wednesday. That's 3,420 more than was reported at the same time Tuesday, making this the second biggest increase in cases since the pandemic started. The record for most new COVID-19 cases in a day in Georgia is 3,472, reported on July 2.

Georgia also reported 2,922 deaths from COVID-19, 23 more that reported Tuesday. In addition, the state reported 12,500 hospitalizations — 274 more than the day before — and 2,502 admissions to intensive-care units.

No information is available from Georgia about how many patients have recovered.

Gwinnett County hit a milestone of its own Wednesday by adding 265 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19, bumping it past the 10,000 mark to 10,237 cases. Gwinnett already had the most COVID-19 cases of any of Georgia’s 159 counties. Here are the numbers:

• Gwinnett County: 10,237 confirmed cases
• Fulton County: 9,358 confirmed cases
• DeKalb County: 7,362 confirmed cases
• Cobb County: 6,255 confirmed cases
• Hall County: 3,573 confirmed cases

Counties in or near metro Atlanta also continue to have the highest number of deaths. The lone exception is Dougherty County, the site of Georgia's first major outbreak.

• Fulton County: 319 deaths
• Cobb County: 248 deaths
• DeKalb County: 175 deaths
• Gwinnett County: 175 deaths
• Dougherty County: 155 deaths

As of Wednesday, nearly 1.2 million Georgians have been tested for COVID-19, with about 15 percent the less reliable tests for antibodies.

For the first time on Wednesday, Georgia's COVID-19 website reported separately the percentage of positive results for each type of test without reporting a cumulative percentage. For the more reliable test for the virus itself, 9.5 percent of tests came back positive. For the less reliable test for antibodies, 5.3 percent came back positive. The overall positive rate was about 8.9 percent, up from 8.7 percent on Tuesday.

All Georgia statistics are available on the state's COVID-19 website.

Globally, more than 11.9 million people have been infected by COVID-19, and more than 545,000 people have died, Johns Hopkins University reported Wednesday. In the United States, more than 3 million people have been infected and nearly 132,000 people have died from COVID-19.

The U.S. has only about 4 percent of the world’s population but more confirmed cases and deaths than any other country.

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