Year closes out with Georgia seeing largest single-day spike in reported COVID-19 cases
ATLANTA - The Georgia Department of Public Health has added a record number of confirmed coronavirus cases on New Year’s Eve, making it the biggest single-day reporting since the start of the pandemic.
Just under 8,500 new confirmed cases were added to the state's total on Thursday afternoon, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health. That averages out to be 5,179 new confirmed cases each day for the last two weeks, according to the state’s data. That is nearly double the two-week average from just a month ago, which was reporting about 2,390 new cases per day.
The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases is at 566,676, according to the GDPH. Those numbers do not include the 3,539 positive antigen tests, commonly called rapid COVID tests.
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Hospitals remain at or near capacity. The GDPH reported 4,578 coronavirus patients were in the hospital as of Thursday afternoon. COVID-19 patients have been filling 92 more beds per day for the last weeks, on average, according to state release data. The rate is about three times higher than the average a month ago.
Deaths from COVID-19 in Georgia also continue to rise. The state reports 9,872 confirmed and 1,062 probably deaths. That averages out to be about 37 deaths per day for the last two weeks, according to data provided by the GDPH. That rate is about 30 percent higher than a month ago.
RELATED: CoronavirusNOW.com, FOX's national hub for COVID-19 news and updates.
Know how the COVID-19 outbreak is impacting Georgia
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