ATLANTA (AP) – A record number of people were in hospitals Wednesday in Georgia with confirmed COVID-19 infections, another signal that infections are now more widespread than at the previous summer peak, as public health authorities sought to raise the alarm that the coronavirus is spreading unabated across the state.
In Atlanta, a group called COVID Survivors for Change set out 1,000 chairs near the state capitol in a cold rain to remember the people who have died in Georgia from the respiratory illness. That number rose Wednesday to 10,228 confirmed and suspected deaths.
“I caught COVID-19 back in March,” Marjorie Roberts said at the ceremony. “My first day of symptoms was March 26. Now, nine months later I’m still feeling the remnants. I also lost one of my lifelong friends to COVID-19. I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye. He died in a hospital all by himself. All alone.”
The state Department of Public Health, in a weekly report, warned about the continuing spread of infections. As of Wednesday, confirmed and suspected infections had averaged more than 6,100 over the previous week, the first time that rolling average had exceeded 6,000. At the beginning of November, Georgia was averaging fewer than 2,000 infections a day.
“They reflect our highest case numbers ever, and are not decreasing or leveling off day to day,” the department said.