Albany hospital celebrates positive milestone

ALBANY, Georgia (AP) — A south Georgia hospital that has been inundated with coronavirus cases is celebrating a rare positive milestone.

For the first time, Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany on Tuesday released a patient who tested positive for the virus and had been on a ventilator in an intensive care unit.

Dr. Steven Kitchen says hospital staff lined the hallway cheering and crying as the patient headed home after several weeks in the ICU. The hospital has had more than 50 patients with the coronavirus.

As of Wednesday, the virus has infected roughly 4,600 people in Georgia and killed 139.