Dept of Public Health: now more than two dozen COVID cases  in Athens

The Georgia Department of Public Health says there are now 29 confirmed coronavirus cases in Athens, with seven in Oconee County and three in Madison County. Jackson County has two confirmed cases of COVID 19; Barrow County has five. There are 1,643 coronavirus cases in Georgia in 101 counties. There have been 56 coronavirus deaths in Georgia.

Two University of Georgia students are among the students from across the southeast who were stranded in Peru when that country declared martial law because of coronavirus: Aya Mansour and Juliann Marmal are, along with the others, now back in the United States.

The United Way of Northeast Georgia is partnering with the Athens Area Community Foundation in forming a COVID 19 Community Response Fund. The Foundation says the Fund will provide financial support to local organizations that are working to meet needs associated with the coronavirus pandemic in Athens.

The annual meeting of the Friends of the State Botanical Garden, which had been scheduled for tonight at the Garden on South Milledge Avenue in Athens, is canceled, yet another casualty of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Hall County School System is donating medical supplies—masks, goggles, and gowns among them--to Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville. 

A student at the University of North Georgia campus in Gainesville—last on campus on March 11—has tested positive for coronavirus.

Flowery Branch is among the latest cities in northeast Georgia to declare a state of emergency because of coronavirus: the measure approved by the City Council in Flowery Branch means, among other things, no dining inside restaurants in Flowery Branch.