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Forsyth County confirmed coronavirus cases jump to 85
Coronavirus
The 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is depicted in an illustration provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in January 2020. - photo by Associated Press

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Twelve more cases of COVID-19 were reported from Forsyth County on Monday by the Georgia Department of Public Health, the largest daily increase in the number of local infections since the outbreak began.

A week ago, Forsyth's count of confirmed COVID-19 cases stood at 36, with one death: an 87-year-old man. Forsyth now has 85 cases after the DPH's daily status report at 7 p.m.

Confirmed cases and deaths continue to grow statewide, with 7,558 and 294, respectively. About 18% of cases have required hospitalization.

A total of 31,274 tests have been conducted in Georgia, and the state is trying to ramp up testing. 

Gov. Brian Kemp announced a partnership Monday with CVS Health to set up rapid drive-thru testing sites that could process 1,000 tests a day and return positive results in less than five minutes. The first one opened Monday in a parking deck at Georgia Tech.

Last week, the state announced a partnership between the University System of Georgia, the Georgia Public Health Laboratory and Emory University to increase Georgia’s COVID-19 testing to process more than 3,000 samples a day.

Little information has been made available about individual cases. Georgia has generally released few details at the county level, though it has started to provide more information about individual deaths, and on Friday, April 3, the state released a list of confirmed cases at long-term care facilities for the first time.

During a regular meeting of the Forsyth County Commission on Thursday, April 2, Dr. Scott Cooper, a neurologist at Northside Hospital Forsyth and husband of District 1 Commissioner Molly Cooper, reported there were 10 patients in the hospital's ICU that were positive for COVID-19, the disease caused the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.

Among the positive cases from Forsyth was an individual at The Mann House on Majors Road, Publix employees at locations on McGinnis Ferry Road and Buford Highway and the employee of Panduit Corporation's manufacturing plant on Atlanta Highway.

On Monday, March 30, officials with Scientific Games said it took steps to clean the gaming and lottery company's manufacturing facility in south Forsyth after an employee with one of the company's suppliers visited and later tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

Forsyth County's first death related to COVID-19 was reported on Tuesday, March 24 by the GDPH. The individual was an 87-year-old male, according to the department. It's unknown whether the individual had any underlying medical conditions, according to department records. The DPH could provide no further information.