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June 3: Augusta area and Georgia see jump in COVID-19 cases

Tom Corwin
tcorwin@augustachronicle.com
Dr. Pankaj Ahluwalia prepares vials containing possible coronavirus samples before they are tested at the GEM lab at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, Ga., Monday morning April 27, 2020.

A day after much smaller increases, Augusta and Georgia saw their cases of COVID-19 jump up but with a smaller increase in deaths.

Georgia added 687 new cases to now have 48,894 with 21 new deaths, the Department of Public Health reported. In the Augusta area, Columbia County shot up 15 new cases to 266, Richmond County added eight for 606, McDuffie and Jefferson counties added two each for 69 and 46 respectively, and Burke and Wilkes counties added one new case apiece to now total 123 and 34. All of the other counties remained the same: Screven at 55, Jenkins at 21, Warren at 18, Lincoln at 16 and Glascock and Taliaferro at one each.

There were no new deaths in Augusta area counties and the toll remained at 50.

Georgia Public Health got 8,788 new results Wednesday, of which 7.8 percent were positive, down slightly from Tuesday. The state has now received the results of 574,400 tests, which have been positive 8.5 percent of the time, a rate that has been declining slightly over the last couple of weeks. Georgia has tested the equivalent of 5.4 percent of its 10.6 million people.

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AU Health System saw 14 more cases of COVID-19 to make 774 since the first cases were diagnosed on March 13, with 10 of those patients being treated in the hospital, spokeswoman Christen Engel said. There were also 451 negative results, making it 14,631 so far, she said.

University Hospital had two new positive cases for 280 since the pandemic began, with six patients in the hospital, spokeswoman Rebecca Sylvester said. There were also 110 more negative tests for 3,059 cumulatively, she said.

Doctors Hospital of Augusta saw two new positive cases to now total 75 so far this year, with nine COVID-19 patients being treated in the hospital and another 11 awaiting test results, spokesman Peter Moberg said.

MedNow Urgent Care saw two more positive results for 85 total and seven more negative for 2,370, CEO Mark Newton said. MedNow also has two new positive antibody tests for 23 with 793 negatives, he said.

South Carolina added 236 cases to reach 12,651 with 17 new deaths to now 518. That includes two new cases and one new death, an elderly person, in Aiken County, and one new case in Edgefield County for 52 with two deaths, the Department of Health and Environmental Control reported. The state received 5,640 new results Wednesday, of which 4.2 percent were positive, for 230,687 overall. and has now tested the equivalent of 4.5 percent of its 5.15 million citizens.

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