GA Coronavirus: Kemp's Latest Order Starts At Midnight Thursday
ATLANTA, GA — Gov. Brian Kemp’s latest extension to his coronavirus executive order keeps most restrictions in place but makes two minor revisions: one for hospitality workers and another for those seeking Georgia scholarships.
One change allows restaurant and bar workers to return once they’ve been symptom-free for 24 hours following a known or suspected COVID-19 diagnosis. According to a news release from Kemp’s office, this follows guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The other change allows for some SAT/ACT test score deadlines to be extended for HOPE and Zell Miller scholarships.
The changes go into effect at midnight Thursday and run through Oct. 15.
Gov. Kemp’s office announced the extended executive order on Wednesday, the same day Georgia surpassed 7,000 deaths from COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
GEORGIA’S CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS FOR THURSDAY, OCT. 1
Georgia Department of Public Health in Atlanta reported a total of 319,334 confirmed cases of COVID-19 at 2:50 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1. According to the health department’s website, that includes 1,376 newly confirmed cases over the last 24 hours.
Georgia also reported 7,063 deaths so far from COVID-19, with 43 more deaths recorded in the last 24 hours. In addition, the state reported 28,668 hospitalizations — 146 more than the day before — and 5,300 admissions so far to intensive-care units.
No information is available from Georgia about how many patients have recovered.
Counties in or near metro Atlanta and other metropolitan areas continue to have the highest number of positives, with Fulton County still in the lead.
Fulton County: 27,790 cases — 106 new
Gwinnett County: 27,733 cases — 86 new
Cobb County: 19,829 cases — 89 new
DeKalb County: 18,938 cases — 79 new
Hall County: 9,498 cases — 125 new
Chatham County: 8,548 — 37 new
Richmond County: 7,180 — 33 new
Clayton County: 7,114 — 7 new
Cherokee County: 6,159 — 41 new
Bibb County: 6,097 — 8 new
Counties in or near metro Atlanta also continue to have the most deaths from COVID-19.
Fulton County: 577 deaths — 2 new
Cobb County: 427 deaths
Gwinnett County: 409 deaths
DeKalb County: 369 deaths — 2 new
Dougherty County: 187 deaths
Bibb County: 173 deaths — 2 new
Muscogee County: 170 deaths
Chatham County: 166 deaths — 3 new
Richmond County: 164 deaths — 2 new
Clayton County: 161 deaths — 1 removed
As of Thursday, Georgia has administered more than 3.2 million COVID-19 tests, with about 9 percent of those tests the less reliable ones used to detect antibodies.
For the more reliable test for the virus itself, 10.1 percent of tests came back positive. For the less reliable test for antibodies, 8.4 percent came back positive. The overall positive rate was about 10 percent.
As more Georgians were tested over the last month, the percentage of positive tests inched upward from about 8 percent to more than 10 percent. However, over the last few weeks, the percentage of positives has stabilized at about 10 percent. According to the World Health Organization, positive test results should no more than 5 percent for two weeks before reopening for business as usual. Georgia largely reopened for business in April and May, and since then Gov. Brian Kemp has promoted the use of face masks but has steadfastly refused to mandate them.
All Georgia statistics are available on the state's COVID-19 website.
Globally, more than 34.1 million people have tested positive for COVID-19, and more than 1 million people have died from it, Johns Hopkins University reported Thursday.
In the United States, more than 7.2 million people have been infected and more than 207,000 people have died from COVID-19 as of Thursday. The U.S. has only about 4 percent of the world's population but more confirmed cases and deaths than any other country.
This article originally appeared on the East Cobb Patch
