2020
March 2: State officials say Georgia has its first confirmed cases — a Fulton County father and son. The father had returned from Italy in February. State officials will later recognize that the virus had already been spreading in areas such as Southwest Georgia.
March 11: The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, its first such designation since declaring H1N1 influenza a pandemic in 2009.
March 28: State officials say 65 Georgians have died since the outbreak began.
April 12: Gov. Brian Kemp announces on Easter Sunday that the state will convert part of the Georgia World Congress Center into a 200-bed facility to handle COVID patients.
April 16: Georgia reports 985 coronavirus cases, the estimated peak of the pandemic’s first wave in the state.
May 8: All 159 Georgia counties now report confirmed COVID cases.
June 27: Georgia reports more than 11,000 new cases since June 21, a new one-week record.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Aug. 28: DPH reports that a 1-year-old Cobb County boy died from COVID, the state’s youngest victim.
Dec. 3: Georgia DPH reports that the regions around Athens and Valdosta each had just two ICU beds remaining.
Dec. 14: The Pfizer vaccine, developed with extraordinary speed and spectacular clinical results, arrives in Georgia and is administered to health care workers.
2021
Jan. 5: Georgia announces its first confirmed case of the coronavirus variant “alpha,” first identified in the U.K.
Jan. 6: Georgia officially records more than 10,000 confirmed coronavirus deaths. The state reports an additional 1,130 probable deaths.
Jan. 11: Vaccinations expanded to include adults 65 and over and first responders, including law enforcement and firefighters.
March 25: All Georgians 16 and over become eligible for a COVID vaccine.
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
May 12: Children as young as 12 are eligible for the Pfizer vaccine.
June 8: DPH confirms delta variant found in Ga. based on samples analyzed at least a month earlier.
Sept. 3: The official count of COVID deaths in Georgia exceeds 20,000.
Sept. 15: The state reports 237 confirmed and probable COVID deaths, the most reported in a single day so far in the pandemic.
Oct. 31: DPH reports 50% of all Georgians are fully vaccinated.
Nov. 2: Children as young as 5 eligible for the Pfizer vaccine.
Nov. 24: South Africa reports new highly contagious variant, omicron, to the World Health Organization
Dec. 3: First case of omicron variant detected in Georgia.
2022
Jan. 19: The omicron-fueled surge sets a new single-day record of cases in Georgia: 27,863 combined confirmed PCR and probable cases.
Jan. 20: Top doctors at six of metro Atlanta’s largest hospital groups, overflowing with patients, together make an extraordinary plea for Georgians to get vaccinated and take steps to reduce coronavirus infections.
Feb. 22: New cases drop dramatically in this most recent wave, down 93% from last month’s peak.
