A New Coronavirus Hotspot Might Be Growing In Georgia

People may be going back to normal life, but the coronavirus pandemic is still very much with us, and a new report indicates it could worsen. 

Georgia — COVID-19 isn’t ravishing Georgia as it did New York or New Jersey, but the state is far from being out of the woods. The region reached its peak of new cases on April 7, with 1,598 cases, however, a new report in the New York Times indicates that a new hotspot is forming an hour south of Atlanta.

New figures out of LaGrange, a city with a population of 30,305, shows a considerable amount of new coronavirus cases. To date, Troup County, (population 70,414) where La Grange is located, reports 792 cases and 23 deaths. Yesterday, the county reported 33 new cases in one day. Since June 7, the county has seen an increase of 366 new cases.

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Those figures pale in comparison to Fulton County (where more than a million people reside and where Atlanta is located), which has registered 5,157 cases and 290 deaths. However, since early June, new cases in LaGrange continue to increase, putting the city on the map as a national hotspot. 

Because of the spike in the past two weeks, LaGrange is now ranked on two different lists. The city ranks at No. 7 with new cases reported every day and increasing each day. Though it ranks at No. 1, where an outbreak could come next.

Other counties in Georgia that have growing cases of COVID-19 include Gwinnett County, which reports the highest number of cases in the state, at 5,308. Whitfield County, which has a large Latino population, reports 618 cases and 38 deaths. 

Overall, the state of Georgia has registered 58,414 positive cases of COVID-19 and 2,494 deaths. The Black and Latino population remain at the top of those confirmed with COVID-19 and fatalities in the state. 

Related: Half of Americans Would Get a COVID-19 Vaccine. Here’s How Many Latinos Say They Would.

According to the New York Times report, the No. 1 city with a current outbreak is El Centro, California, which has 2,066 recent cases. El Centro has a massively dense Latino population.