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The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Hart County dropped to three in Wednesday evening’s statewide status update and stayed that way in the noon report Thursday.
Meanwhile, Stephens and Franklin counties’ numbers moved up to five cases and Madison’s is at four. Elbert still has no confirmed cases reported by the DPH, but the county's Emergency Management Agency director posted to social media Thursday morning that one case has been confirmed that may not be reported yet by the DPH.
There are also 485 cases from unknown counties. A DPH spokesperson has said that the unknown numbers come from incomplete or inaccurate information provided to public health workers. As the information is confirmed and vetted, those numbers may change. That also means the numbers of confirmed cases for specific counties may change over time.
The DPH will not release any information about specific cases due to health privacy laws. Any information about specific cases pertaining to who has it, where they work or where they have been in recent weeks is only released by the individuals or companies if they chose to do so. The DPH does release gender, age and whether a person had underlying health conditions in the event of a death.
In the event of a positive test, the DPH works to notify anyone who may have been exposed and orders the person to quarantine for at least two weeks, among other things.
Statewide, 163 people, or 3.05 percent of the confirmed cases, have died from COVID-19. There are 5,348 confirmed cases as of the noon status report and 1,056 people, or 19.75 percent, have been hospitalized.
Gov. Brian Kemp, who will issue a statewide executive stay-at-home order on Friday after learning the disease can be transmitted by asymptomatic people, said in a press conference Wednesday that testing has ramped up since Monday and that as many as 3,000 people each day could be tested moving forward.
Anthony S. Fauci, a leading doctor in President Donald Trump's task force, said as early as January that evidence suggested the disease could be transmitted by asymptomatic people.
He also said that according to University of Washington projections, the state’s hospitals will reach peak capacity on April 23 even with strict social distancing practices being followed.
Social distancing measures include not gathering in groups larger than 10 and always maintaining a six-foot distance between people.
The Hart County Commission is expected to convene in an emergency meeting Thursday, following the release of details from the executive order, to discuss local measures to take. That meeting time has not yet been set.