Hardest hit by the pandemic, the little town of Albany in Dougherty County. Sadly, officials say its peak has not been reached yet. It has received two refrigerated trailers out of the eight distributed around the state. One trailer with a capacity for 24 bodies is at the hospital; the second, capacity 48, is at the county coroner’s office. The county leads all others with 67 dead (population <90,000); Fulton (the most populous county) reports 48 by comparison. While only a month ago, Georgia confirmed 22 Covid-19 deaths, today’s number is 412. At this point in the curve, the state is preparing for death rates to rise and, it anticipates, overwhelm the capabilities of hospitals to store corpses.
In spite of a slight decline in the death rate, the Georgia Public Health Dept. lags behind in reporting current deaths since coroners and hospitals aren’t always able to provide real time information. Hence the public health data does not reflect the current reality, which is worse than publicized.
As models show wide differentiation in their projections, and Gov. Kemp hs not made any statements about sources of guidance other than to say he has relied of various models in his decision making, the presence of refrigerated trailers points to anticipating a worst case scenario that puts deaths in the thousands by the end of June.
Two hospitals receiving mobile units are in Atlanta (2), at Athens (1), Augusta University Medical Center (1), Douglas County (1), and a trailer has been stationed with the state medical examiner’s office in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation located in Decatur.
Bodies must be stored until results from coronavirus tests are known. Patients die before their test results can be reported, and in cases where tests were never taken, the response time is even longer as nasal swabs from corpses are sampled within 72 hours after death.
Georgia’s existing ICUs are at their limits. But one bright light shines in these circumstances. Piedmont Healthcare systems announced its newly constructed 16-story Atlanta tower will open four months earlier than scheduled. As it stands 150 confirmed Covid-19 cases are being treated on campus. The new Covid-19 ready facilities will occupy three floors with admissions to begin Monday, April 13..
The early opening will add three ICU and acute nursing units to Atlanta’s capacity. This will add a total of 132 additional beds, with 64 designated as critically-needed ICU beds.
The. . .tower was originally set to open Aug. 1. AJC
But the most fearsome part of this insidious disease that is crippling the world is that no one knows when it will end.
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Georgia Department of Public Health Statistics
Updates Now Issued at Noon and 7:00 PM
3/3/2020 First day of reporting 3 cases, 0 deaths
3/12/2020 First death reported 1 death
4/8/2020 Noon report 9901 cases, 1993 hospitalized. 362 deaths
COVID-19 Confirmed Cases: |
No. Cases (%) |
Total |
11483 (100%) |
Hospitalized |
2351 (20.47%)* |
Deaths |
416 (3.62%)** |
* a rise in hospitalizations by 0.34%
* * a drop in death ratio of 0.04%
Today’s Coronavirus Testing Data
COVID-19 Testing By Lab Type: |
No. Pos. Tests |
Total Tests |
Commercial Lab |
10944 |
43156 |
GPH Lab |
539 |
2991 |
Overall # of tests performed in GA: 46,147 +7360 since 4/6/20
Overall percentage positive tests: 24.88% -0.6% since 4/6/20
Following Statistics Are Reported for the First Time
by GPH
COVID-19 Cases in Georgia by Race and Ethnicity* ++
Race |
Ethnicity |
Cases |
Black Or African American |
Hispanic/Latino |
15 |
Black Or African American |
Non-Hispanic/Latino |
1939 |
Black Or African American |
Unknown |
460 |
White |
Hispanic/Latino |
118 |
White |
Non-Hispanic/Latino |
1440 |
White |
Unknown |
248 |
American Indian/Native American |
Hispanic/Latino |
1 |
American Indian/Native American |
Non-Hispanic/Latino |
8 |
American Indian/Native American |
Unknown |
1 |
Asian |
Hispanic/Latino |
0 |
Asian |
Non-Hispanic/Latino |
61 |
Asian |
Unknown |
16 |
Multiracial |
Hispanic/Latino |
23 |
Multiracial |
Non-Hispanic/Latino |
2 |
Multiracial |
Unknown |
2 |
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander |
Hispanic/Latino |
1 |
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander |
Non-Hispanic/Latino |
4 |
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander |
Unknown |
2 |
Other |
Hispanic/Latino |
104 |
Other |
Non-Hispanic/Latino |
41 |
Other |
Unknown |
25 |
Unknown |
Hispanic/Latino |
65 |
Unknown |
Non-Hispanic/Latino |
288 |
Unknown |
Unknown |
6619 |
* Source of data unknown; assume most from hospital admission forms where indication of race/ethnicity is voluntary.
++ See news link below.
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Discussion
AGE: Leading infected age group demographic remains 18-59 years-old, which stands at 61%; another increase of 1% over last report, continuing the weekly upward trend. Younger and older age groups unchanged from 4/8/20.
SEX: Females 54%, males, 44%, unknown 2%; another increase of 1% in females over last report, continuing the weekly upward trend. Could be attributed to greater numbers of females getting tested.
GENERAL: Preponderance of deaths include patients with underlying conditions.
Probable most dominant comorbidity is obesity or overweight
because it predominantly underlies the three sub-contributors of 1) heart
disease, 2) diabetes, and 3) hypertension.
Oldest death 100 year-old female, youngest death 27 year-old female.
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News You Can Use
Kemp: ‘I am pleading with you to not attend’ in-person Easter services
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