ATLANTA — New models show Georgia is one of four states expected to see the earliest uptick in coronavirus deaths.
The site, Covid Act Now, which partners with Stanford Medicine, says Georgia’s preparedness is dangerously below international standards.
So far, Georgia has more than 2,500 coronavirus deaths and projections from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation show that number could be 10,000 by Oct. 1.
[Gov. Kemp lifts more coronavirus restrictions for Georgia]
Channel 2 Action News talked to Dr. Ali Mokdad to help explain why.
“So for Georgia, there are a couple of things that are happening. One of it is the relaxation of social distancing at a time when the infection rate was very high, and we’ve seen an increase in mobility. More mobility, more infections, more death unfortunately,” Mokdad said.
But Mokdad said that’s just one part of the story.
“The second part of the story, when you start your second wave, which is in September, if you have more cases right now, you’re going to start at a much worse position and you have more mortality in the future,” Mokdad said.
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While some states are seeing progress, cases are rising in 22 states, including Georgia.
“The bottom line is we’re seeing more hospitalizations and that’s not from increase in testing, that’s from real people who are needing hospital care,” said Dr. Eileen Marty from Florida International University.
The Georgia Department of Public Health updates its website every day at 3 p.m.
In Alabama, ICUs are nearing capacity.
Emotions ran high in Montgomery this week when officials failed to pass an ordinance requiring masks.
“I saw six of my family go down the drain because of Covid,” William Boyd of Montgomery said.
Alarming new statistics from the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show Hispanic Americans could make up a third of all cases, despite being only 18 percent of the population.
And African Americans are more than 4 times more likely to be hospitalized with the coronavirus than white people.
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