3 more patients die of coronavirus in Georgia, bringing death toll to 4

ALBANY, Ga. — Three more people have died of the coronavirus in Georgia, hospital officials confirmed Wednesday.

A patient who was treated with Emory Healthcare has died. No identifying details about that patient were released, including which Emory facility the patient was at.

“The Emory Healthcare community is saddened to learn of the first death of one of our patients with confirmed COVID-19 despite the heroic efforts of our physicians, nurses and care team,” Emory said in a statement. “For this patient’s family, this is an incredibly sad day.”

Two more people died at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany, officials confirm.

The Georgia Department of Public Health announced Wednesday that the patients were a 42-year-old woman and a 69-year-old woman who both had preexisting medical conditons.

Scott Steiner, Phoebe Putney Hospital System CEO, told Channel 2’s Richard Elliot that the two patients died a couple of days ago but the hospital had to wait to get the results back to make the announcement.

Because of privacy laws, Steiner couldn’t tell us much about the patients other than that health officials traced both cases back to a single source.

“We’ve been able to tie it to two funerals in a funeral home of how it spread,” Steiner said.

That brings the total death toll in Georgia to four people.

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Steiner said there are eight more COVID-19 patients at the hospital, 13 more are being treated at home and the hospital is waiting on

400 more test results to come back.

He said COVID-19 is putting a strain on the southwest Georgia hospital.

“We’ve gone through now six months of supplies. What normally takes us six months to use, we’ve done that in seven days,” Steiner said.

Steiner said the hospital has just over a one-day supply of isolation gowns and less than four days left of masks for his staff.

One other person in metro Atlanta has died from the virus. A 67-year-old man with underlying health conditions died at Wellstar Kennestone Hospital last week.

The number of positive cases have tripled since Saturday.

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