Georgia’s number of new coronavirus cases hit another all-time high Thursday, with the Georgia Department of Public Health reporting 3,472 new cases.
Hospitalizations continue to grow, as well with more than 220 new hospitalizations being reported each day for the last three days. Thursday saw 225 more hospitalizations for the virus.
Georgia now has 87,709 confirmed cases of COVID-19, 11,500 hospitalizations and 2,849 deaths.
As the state enters the usually crowded Fourth of July weekend, Gov. Brian Kemp and department of public health director Dr. Kathleen Toomey have embarked on a flyover of Georgia, visiting several cities to encourage residents to wear masks.
Thursday morning, a group of health care professionals sent a letter to Kemp calling on the governor to make mask wearing mandatory and rollback the openings of bars and gatherings of more than 25 people.
While Kemp has said mandatory masking is “a bridge too far” in his eyes, he said yesterday in Athens that college football might be off the table if Georgians don’t start wearing masks in public.
DeKalb County sent out an alert to residents’ phones Thursday morning warning them of the “imminent threat” of the virus and rising cases in the county. The county is urging residents and visitors to wear masks and practice social distancing during the Fourth of July holiday.
Savannah became the first city in Georgia to mandate mask wearing earlier this week.
As case numbers continue to climb, a new study showed that Georgians overwhelmingly trust scientists and academic experts for information about COVID-19 and are becoming less trustful of political institutions.
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