State infection cases rise by 18.2%; fatality rate falls to slightly below 3%; a hint of a flattening curve? —
Fayette County is now reporting 25 cases of confirmed Covid-19 infections, up from 19 one day ago, according to the March 28 noon report from the Georgia Department of Public Health. DPH reports two fatalities in Fayette since the pandemic began as a result of the viral infection.
Neighboring Coweta County held steady at 19 confirmed infections and two deaths over the entire pandemic period.
Across the state, DPH is reporting 2,366 total confirmed cases. The total new cases over the previous day is 365, an increase of 18.2%.
As of March 28, 69 deaths have been recorded statewide, a 2.92% increase over the March 27 report of 64 deaths.
The DPH reports that of the 2,366 total cases, 617 are in hospital beds March 28 — 26.08% of the total. That’s up 51 persons, a 9% increase in hospitalizations — which represents a significant improvement over the previous day’s rate of increase (nearly 20% on Friday). To put it another way, more people are in the hospital being treated for Covid-19, but the day-over-day numbers and rate of increase showed at least a temporary trend toward smaller increases (if only for one day).
The 69 deaths across the state caused by the coronavirus infection represented a fatality rate of 2.92% of the total number of cases reported. The rate as of the day before was 3.2%. Again, that’s a slight improvement in the death rate from one day to the next, which brings hope that prevention measures may be working.
Today’s reported cases by sex: 49% female and 47% male, with 4% unknown, the GPH report said.
Infection cases by age group were as follows: Ages 18 to 59 represented 56% of all cases; 34% of cases were in the 60 and over age group; 1% of young people under age 18 had contracted the illness; and the ages of 9% were unreported.
Numbers of confirmed tests in adjacent counties this geographic area are as follows: Fulton, 373 cases, 12 fatalities; Clayton, 57 cases, one fatality; Henry, 50 cases, one death; Fayette, 25 cases, two fatalities; Coweta, 19 cases, two deaths; and Spalding, 11 cases, no deaths..
Lab tests as of March 28: 9,185 commercial lab tests resulted in a positive confirmation of Covid-19 in 2,097 of the tests, a positive rate of 22.8%. DPH results from 1,866 tests showed a positive finding in 269 cases, a rate of 14.4%.
