Atlanta

Gov. Kemp says no new cases of coronavirus in Georgia

By WSBTV.com News Staff
By WSBTV.com News Staff

ATLANTA — Gov. Brian Kemp said Thursday afternoon that there are no additional cases of coronavirus in Georgia.

Kemp and other state officials gave an update late Thursday afternoon on the state's response to the virus.

[WATCH: A Channel 2 Action News Special: Coronavirus: Questions and Answers]

Despite no new cases, Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Kathleen Toomey said the state has tripled the number of coronavirus tests done so far this week.

The initial batch of test kits that went out last week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were tainted.

Kemp said the public health department labs now have new ones ahead of schedule.

[READ: This is the timeline of when and how the metro coronavirus patients got sick]

“Like all of us, I’m proud to say that our state lab now has the capacity to conduct COVID-19 testing, which actually started today," Kemp said.

Toomey said they initially got 150 test kits, but they’ve already used 50 of them.

On Monday, Kemp announced that a father and son in Fulton County had contracted the virus, the first two confirmed cases in the state.

In this case, the father had traveled to Italy and started showing symptoms of the virus after he got back to metro Atlanta and it spread to his 15-year-old son.

[READ: ‘Remain calm’: Gov. Kemp speaks to Channel 2 about coronavirus cases in Georgia]

The father and son, along with the rest of their family, have been under self-isolation in their home.

State health officials said earlier in the week that their symptoms were already improving.

Last week, the governor also formed a coronavirus task force made up of state health officials, doctors and experts from metro hospital systems to help aid in the state’s response to the virus.

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