Georgia has ‘widespread’ community spread of COVID-19, CDC says. What you should know
Georgia is seeing “widespread” community transmission of the novel coronavirus, with officials still working to slow the spread of the highly contagious disease.
According to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Georgia is one of over two dozen states where community spread, or the transmission of an illness from an unknown source, has reached staggering highs.
The data, which is updated daily, includes “both confirmed and presumptive positive cases of COVID-19” reported to or tested at the CDC since Jan. 21, the agency’s website states. Cases of community transmission are self-reported by each state’s public health department and describe the level of said spread across local jurisdictions.
Numbers published by the Georgia Department of Public Health on Thursday show the Peach State has surpassed 5,300 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with over 1,000 of those cases requiring hospitalization. The disease has also claimed the lives of more than 160 Georgians, according to the report.
Fulton County has been hardest hit by coronavirus cases overall with more than 700 cases and 22 deaths, department data shows. Dougherty County comes in with the second-highest number of coronavirus cases, followed by DeKalb, Cobb and Gwinnett counties.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp faced pressure to issue a state-wide lockdown in response to the pandemic, after previously advising only “medically fragile” persons to stay at home. On Wednesday, he announced plans to sign a pair of executive orders mandating a shelter-in-place for all Georgians and shuttering the state’s public schools for the rest of the year.
Kemp said the fact that asymptomatic people can still spread the illness prompted the decision, admitting at a Wednesday press conference that he had, in the last 24 hours, just learned “this virus is now transmitting before people see signs.”
“So what we’ve been telling people from directives from the CDC for weeks now, that if you start feeling bad stay home, those individuals could have been infecting people before they ever felt bad,” he told local media, adding, “This is a game changer for us.”
The new shelter-in-place order is set to take effect Friday and last until April 13, his office said.
The statewide lockdown is one of several precautions Georgia leaders, as well as leaders in other states, are taking in hopes of quelling the virus’ spread.
Public health agencies, including the CDC and World Health Organization, have urged residents to wash their hands often, avoid touching their faces and mouths and to practice social distancing by maintaining at least 6 feet between themselves and others.
“The best-case scenario would be 100 percent of Americans doing precisely what is required,” Dr. Deborah Birx, coronavirus response coordinator for the White House, told NBC’s “Today Show” earlier this week. “But we’re not sure ... that all of America is responding in a uniform way to protect one another, so we also have to factor that in.”
Other states with reported “widespread” community transmission include California, Illinois, Rhode Island, Virginia and Wyoming, the CDC reports.