A second person from the Cartersville church attended by Evans attorney Jason Hasty has died after testing positive for coronavirus.

Hasty, a Republican candidate for Augusta district attorney, announced last week he is positive for the virus but said Wednesday from his home, where he is in quarantine, that he was feeling well.

Hasty attended the Church at Liberty Square on March 1 and March 7 prior to being tested March 14, he said. His positive result came back March 16.

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The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported that Harold Johnson Passmore, 78, died Monday from the virus, which has killed 47 statewide. Passmore was an usher at the church and volunteered at its food pantry.

Hasty was in Cartersville while his father was under hospice care there. He’s told The Augusta Chronicle he is not sure if he was exposed to the virus at the church or transmitted it himself to others there.

Feeling unwell, Hasty was examined by a doctor Feb. 17 and tested negative for the flu.

He and his wife and two sons decided to attend church after his father died early March 1. The service was a reunion of Liberty’s choir, largely musical and drew thousands of members and former choir members.

"People were parking on the grass and there were people who had not sung in the choir for a while," he said Wednesday. "It was a sending off of a man who had been there for something like 35 years.

"There were a lot of people up there in the choir loft," Hasty said. "It was almost all music and it was very exuberant."

Hasty’s nephew, who is in his mid-20s, sang in the choir and sat beside him for lunch after the service. He has shown no symptoms, Hasty said.

On Friday, choir member Elizabeth Wells, 65, died from the virus in Rome where she lived. At least five who attended the service have contracted the disease.

The church is located in Bartow County, which had 76 confirmed cases Tuesday.

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