Georgia reported first coronavirus cases a month ago. Now, there are more than 5,400

A month after the state reported its first two cases, the Georgia Department of Public Health at 7 p.m. Thursday confirmed 5,444 cases of COVID-19 in the state, up by 96 from the last update at noon Thursday.

Statewide, 176 people have now died from the novel coronavirus, an increase of 13 confirmed deaths since noon.

The Georgia Public Health Laboratory and private labs have conducted a total of 22,957 COVID-19 tests. The state has tested 2,201 people. Private labs have tested 20,756, state officials said.

The state health department reports 1,129 people have been hospitalized due to the virus.

State health officials have not provided a breakdown of the residents tested for COVID-19 in each county. The state is also not tracking the number of people who have recovered from COVID-19.

For 665 cases, the state is reporting the counties as “unknown.” The person may be homeless or medical professionals may not have entered the person’s county of residence into the state’s electronic database, health officials have previously said.

Georgia reported its first two confirmed cases of COVID-19 March 2.

Here’s a breakdown of the cases and deaths in each county:

This story was originally published April 2, 2020 at 12:09 PM with the headline "Georgia reported first coronavirus cases a month ago. Now, there are more than 5,400."

Nick Wooten

Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

Nick Wooten is the Accountability/Investigative reporter for the Ledger-Enquirer where he is responsible for covering several topics, including Georgia politics. His work may also appear in the Macon Telegraph. Nick was given the Georgia Press Association’s 2021 Emerging Journalist award for his coverage of elections, COVID-19 and Columbus’ LGBTQ+ community. Before joining McClatchy, he worked for The (Shreveport La.) Times covering city government and investigations. He is a graduate of Mercer University in Macon, Georgia.