Georgia exceeds 44,600 total coronavirus cases Wednesday. Here is the latest update

The Georgia Department of Public Health confirmed 44,638 statewide coronavirus cases at 7 p.m. Wednesday, an increase of 363 from Wednesday morning.

There was an increase of 655 new cases reported from 7 p.m. Tuesday to 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Statewide, 1,933 people have now died from the novel coronavirus, an increase of 34 since Wednesday morning.

The Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency reports that 854 people are currently hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19 infections as of May 26. This count does not include people who are being investigated by health officials to determine if they have the illness.

The Georgia Public Health Laboratory and private labs have performed 518,591 coronavirus tests, but 77,835 of those are antibody tests according to the latest data.

Viral tests measure current infections while antibody tests check for past, likely infections. A positive antibody test by itself is not listed as a confirmed COVID-19 case. The antibody tests will soon be removed from the tally of total tests performed, health officials previously said.

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

For 1,372 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.

The state health department also reported that 1,925 non-Georgia residents tested positive for COVID-19. State health officials previously said these numbers account for out-of-state residents whose health care provider is located in Georgia.

Breakdown by County

This story was originally published May 27, 2020 at 9:40 AM with the headline "Georgia exceeds 44,600 total coronavirus cases Wednesday. Here is the latest update."

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.