State officials are building a “quarantine space” in a middle Georgia county that will house residents sickened by the disease caused by coronavirus who have nowhere to go to isolate themselves.

Gov. Brian Kemp’s office said Friday the facility is under construction at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Monroe County, and that it will accommodate 20 temporary housing units when it’s complete. No patients are yet located there.

The state previously prepared a section of Hard Labor Creek State Park in Morgan County for isolating and monitoring patients who were exposed to COVID-19.

One patient, a military veteran who worked at Waffle House, was isolated at that facility this week.

The patient, Joey Camp, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he volunteered to be isolated because he lives with a friend who has an infant son. He said he lived in a remote section of the sprawling park and is taking antibiotics and watching movies on his smartphone.

At least 42 Georgians have been sickened by the disease, state health officials said Friday, and one resident has died. That patient, a 67-year-old hospitalized in Cobb County, was diagnosed with the illness over the weekend.

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A sign is seen outside of the C.T. Martin Natatorium and Recreation Center on Monday, Feb. 19, 2024, in Atlanta. It was the first day of early voting in the Georgia presidential primary in 2024. (Miguel Martinez/AJC)

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Cuthbert is the county seat of Randolph County, one of 94 Georgia counties that registered more deaths than births in 2024. The county's hospital closed in 2020, leaving longtime state Rep. Gerald Greene to drivce himself 46 miles to Albany while suffering from a kidney stone recently. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC