Hart County now has nine confirmed cases of COVID-19 as salons, restaurants and other types of businesses reopen under the first phase of Gov. Brian Kemp’s plan to begin opening the state’s economy again.
The noon status update from the Georgia Department of Public Health shows that Hart County now has had nine cases, Elbert has 19, Franklin as 17 and Madison has 22, including one death. Stephens County now has had 71 confirmed cases and one death.
The report includes a color-coded map showing the rate of cases per 100,000 people that indicates active cases appear to be concentrated along the western border of Hart County with Franklin and Madison counties.
Overall, Georgia has had 23,773 total cases confirmed, 4,433 of those cases, or 18.65 percent, have been hospitalized and 942 of the cases, or 3.96 percent, have resulted in death.
Statewide, 127,169 people have been tested since the DPH began tracking COVID-19 numbers.
Of the confirmed cases, 633 of them are in people from unknown counties and 1,027 of them have been non-Georgia residents. Cases are considered from an unknown county when the DPH cannot confirm residence information for a patient or if information provided is incomplete.
The jump to nine cases is the first increase Hart County has seen in weeks.
As of Monday, restaurants in Georgia were allowed to reopen for dine-in patrons if they adhered to social distancing and other guidelines provided by the state. Other businesses, like salons, barbershops, nail salons, bowling alleys and movie theaters, among others, were allowed to reopen as of last Friday if they adhered to state guidelines.