The COVID-19 pandemic was first detected in the U.S. state of Georgia on March 2, 2020. The state's first death came ten days later on March 12. As of April 17, 2021, there were 868,163 confirmed cases, 60,403 hospitalizations, and 17,214 deaths. All of Georgia's 159 counties now report COVID-19 cases, with Gwinnett County reporting over 85,000 cases and the next three counties (Fulton, Cobb and DeKalb) now reporting over 56,000 cases each.
Governor Brian Kemp declared an "unprecedented" public health emergency on March 14 and ordered on March 16 that all public schools, colleges, and universities in the state close from March 18 through the start of April. COVID-19 was first detected in a prison inmate on March 20. On March 23, gatherings of over 10 people were banned, bars and nightclubs were ordered to close, and a shelter-in-place order for the "medically fragile" was issued. On April 2, a statewide shelter in place order was announced.
On March 23, Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms signed a 14-day stay-at-home order to direct all city residents to stay at home except for performing essential tasks through April 7. This followed a city-wide state of emergency on March 15 prohibiting "large public gatherings of more than 250 people" and a March 20 order for businesses to close. The city of South Fulton instituted a curfew on March 17, requiring residents to stay at home from 6:00 PM to 7:00 AM (with work and medical exceptions) and barring gatherings of more than ten people. On March 23, DeKalb County enacted a "voluntary curfew". Savannah issued a shelter-in-place order on March 24.
As of September 2, 2021, Georgia has administered 9,882,512 COVID-19 vaccine doses, and has fully vaccinated 4,444,517 people, equivalent to 42.72% of the population.
Timeline
February to March 2020
On February 29 and March 7, about 20 people contracted the virus at funerals in the same funeral home in Albany. The state health department notified the funeral home about potential exposure to the virus on March 13. The city went on to lead the state in COVID-19 deaths and to have one of the highest infection rates in the country, with the outbreak linked to the funerals. By April 8, there had been 973 confirmed cases and 56 deaths at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, with many others in quarantine awaiting test results. The hospital also received media attention after CEO Scott Steiner said they had exhausted their entire six-month stockpile of medical supplies intended for COVID-19 response in just six days due to the extent of the outbreak. As the hospital rushed to meet supply demands for PPE, they experienced price gouging and received defective equipment from black market medical suppliers in Mexico, which resulted in a plan for staff workers to manually sew respiratory masks. In response, Albany and surrounding Dougherty County declared a shelter-in-place order lasting two weeks on March 20.
On March 2, state officials announced the first two known cases in Georgia: a Fulton County man in his 50s and his teenage son who had returned on February 22 from a trip to Milan, Italy.
On March 6, public health officials reported a presumptive positive case involving a 46-year-old woman in Floyd County that appeared unrelated to international travel.
On March 8, Governor Brian Kemp announced that a number of Americans on the cruise ship Grand Princess — including 34 Georgians — would be "securely transferred" to Dobbins Air Reserve Base for testing and quarantine on March 9 or 10. That night, Kemp said four currently hospitalized Georgians had been tested for COVID-19, with the Georgia Department of Public Health waiting for confirmation from the CDC; one person was a resident of Cherokee County, two were residents of Cobb County, and one a resident of Fulton County.
On March 10, the Department of Public Health reported five additional cases, bringing the state total to 22. The majority of cases were in Cobb County (7 cases) and Fulton County (6 cases). On March 11, the state announced nine more cases, making the total 31 presumed, with twelve confirmed.
On March 12, the Governor's office reported the first death in the state of Georgia related to the pandemic — the 67-year-old man who had underlying health conditions. He had attended the funeral held in Albany on February 29. A dining facility worker at Moody Air Force Base, near Valdosta, tested positive for the virus, prompting the temporary closure of the facility for cleaning.
On March 15, Atlanta mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, declared a state of emergency in the city, and banned public gatherings of more than 250 people.
On March 16, the Georgia State Defense Force was activated to provide COVID-19 defense support to civil authorities.
On March 24, Governor Brian Kemp ordered all bars and clubs to close.
April to June 2020
On April 1, 2020, Governor Kemp ordered that all K-12 schools close through the end of the 2019–20 academic year. On April 2, Kemp issued a statewide shelter in place order, saying he had just learned "within the last 24 hours" that asymptomatic carriers could transmit the disease even if they were not exhibiting symptoms. However, documents show that state officials were warned about so-called community transmission as early as March 2.
Governor Kemp issued an order effective April 3 suspending local shelter-in-place mandates, reopening beaches so long as people stay six feet apart.
On April 8, Governor Kemp extended the statewide shelter in place order through the end of April.
On April 17, four Tyson Foods employees died of COVID-19 in Camilla, Georgia, and an undisclosed number were infected.
From June 17–27, the YMCA's Camp High Harbor on Lake Burton in Rabun County held an orientation and a camp session for 597 Georgia residents. On June 24, a teenage counselor tested positive and the camp started sending campers home, shutting down the camp on June 27. Of the 344 people tested, 260 (44%) were positive for COVID-19.
July 2020 to present
By July 20, there were COVID-19 outbreaks at several nursing homes and senior care facilities in northwest Georgia. Across eleven facilities, there were 248 infected residents, 130 infected staff members, and 32 deaths.
On August 6, a photo and a video of a crowded hallway at North Paulding High School was posted to social media, highlighting a lack of social distancing and low rate of face mask usage at the school. Two students received suspensions that were later reversed. On August 10, after one week of resuming in-person classes, six students and three faculty tested positive for COVID-19 at that same school, causing it to close. On August 10, Cherokee County School District sent more than 250 students and faculty home to quarantine after eleven students and two faculty members tested positive for COVID-19. The students ranged from first grade to twelfth grade.
On August 12, Georgia reported its highest single-day death toll since start of the pandemic, at 122 deaths.
On August 25, Georgia Tech had a total of 302 cases since March. A fraternity with 25 cases was quarantined.
On September 11, 10% of on-campus students at Georgia College and State University had tested positive since the beginning of August, for a total of 645 cases. Students were being housed in double rooms, against guidance from the American College Health Association.
On October 16, many attendees at a 7,000 person campaign rally for President Trump in Macon did not wear masks. A digital billboard nearby displayed the words "Trump COVID Superspreader event."
On October 30, Governor Kemp and his wife began quarantining after exposure to an individual who had tested positive.
On January 7, 2021, Gwinnett County Public Schools had 920 active student and 162 new staff cases. On January 8, 2021, Fulton County School System had 142 new student and staff cases, and Cherokee County School District (CCSD) cancelled in-person schooling after 441 of the 4,800 staff were out due to either having COVID-19 or being in quarantine after exposure. CCSD had 147 active student and 92 staff COVID-19 infections.
On March 23, 2021, Governor Kemp announced that all Georgia adults ages 16 and up would be eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine beginning March 25.
On May 11, 2023, the Public Health Emergency declaration had expired for the state of Georgia.
State and local government responses
State government
All state lawmakers and their staff members were urged to self-quarantine on March 18 after state Senator Brandon Beach tested positive. Beach had displayed symptoms for nearly a week, and despite knowing his COVID-19 test was pending, he went to work at the state capitol on March 16 when emergency legislation was passed. Beach explained in an interview that he "was cleared to go back to normal duties" and added that "[i]n no way, shape or form would [he] ever intentionally expose anyone". Governor Kemp, who was also potentially exposed, said he would not self-quarantine or be tested because his time around others was "severely limited" and he "never interacted with any legislators".
Kemp has faced criticism that his efforts to stop the virus' spread are not forceful enough. In a primetime television "town hall" on March 26 simulcast on all of Atlanta's major network stations as well as by statewide PBS member Georgia Public Broadcasting and over 140 radio stations across the state — Kemp appeared with members of the state coronavirus task force, including Atlanta mayor Bottoms, DPH commissioner Kathleen Toomey, Georgia Emergency Management Agency director Homer Bryson, and Georgia Insurance and Safety Fire commissioner John King.
On March 28, Governor Kemp's top aide Tim Fleming said on social media that "[t]he media and some in the medical profession are peddling these doomsday models and projections... This has in turn resulted in people panicking and local governments across our state overreacting. As a result of their overreach, many small businesses will struggle and some will not reopen." Around the same time, Atlanta mayor Bottoms warned that city hospitals were projected to be "filled beyond capacity" by May 3, and Toomey said the situation would "get much worse".
Coronavirus task force
Governor Kemp first announced the creation of an 18-member coronavirus task force on February 28.
On March 12, Kemp announced that he was expanding the task force to include four new committees: the Emergency Preparedness Committee, chaired by John King; the Economic Impact Committee, chaired by Jeffrey Dorfman; the Primary Care Physicians Committee, chaired by Ben Watson (R–Savannah); and the Committee for the Homeless and Displaced, chaired by Keisha Lance Bottoms, mayor of Atlanta. This increased the task force's size to 66 members. On March 20, Kemp revealed the complete list of committee members.
Kemp added a fifth committee on April 5, the Community Outreach Committee, co-chaired by Bernice A. King and Leo Smith.
Quarantine sites
On March 9, Governor Kemp announced the preparation of Hard Labor Creek State Park, located in Morgan County, as a quarantine destination for diagnosed individuals "without other options". On March 10, a coronavirus patient from Cherokee County, who did not need hospitalization but lacked adequate quarantine conditions at home, became the first to be relocated to the park; he was released on March 15. A second person arrived on March 17. Georgia stopped using this location on March 24.
A second quarantine site was constructed at the Georgia Department of Public Safety in Forsyth, Monroe County. The area housed twenty trailers with room for up to 40 patients. This site opened on March 24, replacing the old site.
Department of Public Health
The Department of Public Health (DPH) released daily coronavirus statistics, including the number of confirmed cases, deaths, positive tests, and total tests, as well as breakdowns by age, sex, and county. DPH recently began releasing numbers twice a day at 12:00 pm and 7:00 pm, and starting on March 24 included the number of hospitalizations. On March 27, the DPH updated the state map on its website. The DPH did not release figures regarding its backlog of tests, a measure that other states have taken.
On May 13, the DPH pulled a bar graph showing trends in new cases among Georgia's counties, that had been published with its bars not properly placed in chronological order (giving the false impression of descending case counts).
State announces reopening
As of April 21, the state had over 20,000 confirmed cases and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation predicted on that day that June 19 would be the earliest safe date for Georgia to relax its social distancing measures.
Nonetheless, on April 20 Governor Kemp announced that many businesses could reopen on April 24, including "gyms, hair salons, bowling alleys and tattoo parlors", with movie theaters and restaurants at 50% capacity allowed to reopen on April 27.
Reactions to the reopening
The governor's reopening decision brought widespread condemnation from inside and outside of Georgia, with Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms saying she would "continue to ask Atlantans to please stay at home"; Stacey Abrams, the 2018 Democratic Party candidate for governor, calling reopening "dangerously incompetent"; and even President Trump (who otherwise had generally been advocating for lifting stay-at-home orders, especially in states with Democratic governors) saying at the April 22 press briefing that Georgia "can wait a little longer... safety has to predominate."