ATLANTA — In Georgia, there are now more than 52,000 confirmed cases and over 2,200 deaths, as of Monday.
But it's important to not just look at the numbers, but to analyze what they mean and add perspective.
According to a report generated on May 29, and provided to 11Alive through an open records request, we can now see the county breakdown of how many people have died at the hospital, with COVID-19. The report says that of the around 7,700 hospitalizations, 19 percent of those patients, 1,446 had died.
On that same day, Georgia Emergency Management reported 891 active patients. If you subtract out both those groups, you end up with 5,397. That number represents COVID-19 recoveries, people who were the most seriously ill and went to the hospital, but have since gone home.
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Over the weekend, a nurse reached out to us after she noticed the number of fatalities reported on the Department of Public Health's daily status report dropped by 14 people.
Is this possible? How can the number of deaths go down?
We have been tracking this and dozens of other metrics everyday and noticed this change as well. Usually it's a confirmed positive case getting moved back in time or shifted to another county as DPH learns more.
This time, a DPH spokesperson said their quality control team found duplicates.
In a written statement she said, "We can get the same death reported by more than one source. Or sometimes it's a name that was misspelled and resubmitted without being identified as a correction. Many are simply clerical errors."
There are a lot of decisions being made using this data, and as frustrated as we may get with it, national groups like covidtracking.com give Georgia an A for its data quality. And fixing mistakes when they’re caught, is one reason why.
11Alive is focusing our news coverage on the facts and not the fear around the virus. We want to keep you informed about the latest developments while ensuring that we deliver confirmed, factual information.
We will track the most important coronavirus elements relating to Georgia on this page. Refresh often for new information.