DeKalb County

Georgia sees big drop in new COVID-19 cases, bringing relief to the metro’s crowded hospitals

ATLANTA — There’s some good news for Georgia as the White House released its weekly coronavirus report.

Georgia saw a large drop in new cases since last week, falling about 28%.

While the Atlanta metro remains in the Red Zone, the number of reported deaths since last week also dropped, about 6%. New COVID-19 hospitalizations also were down, falling about 17%.

Information from the Georgia Department of Public Health has showed a steady decline in cases across the state for about the last month.

That has been the case at Grady Memorial Hospital, as well.

Channel 2′s Carol Sbarge spoke with the hospital’s chief medical officer Dr. Robert Jansen on Tuesday, who said it appears Georgia is out of the holiday spread.

TRENDING STORIES:

“I think what we’re seeing now is admission are beginning to taper off significantly because the impact from Christmas, New Year celebrations is now dissipated and the people who got infected and infected others, I think it’s run it’s course,” Jansen said.

According to Jansen, Grady has 94 coronavirus patients right now, along with another 22 patients at the surge center at the Georgia World Congress Center.

At the peak of this surge, Jansen said Grady had 200 coronavirus patients. Now, Grady and other hospitals are closely watching to see what happens with the UK variant in the state.

“If we do have a significant increase in the number people who are infected with the UK variant, it could have an impact on admissions,” Jansen said.

He told Sbarge that he is encouraged more vaccine doses have become available in Georgia in recent weeks.