Georgia Hospital Loses Covid Shield Law Defense in Death Suit

A deceased patient’s daughter can proceed to trial on wrongful death claims against health-care providers she said negligently treated her father during the Covid-19 pandemic, a Georgia appeals court said.

The state’s health-care shield provisions didn’t immunize Coffee Regional Medical Center or a physician practice group from claims that arose during the public health emergency because the protections applied only to individual caregivers, the Georgia Court of Appeals said Monday. Those measures might apply to another of the defendants, a doctor, but there were disputed facts precluding summary judgment for her, the court added.

Suits throughout the country have tested ...