A bit of positive news came out of the Georgia Department of Public Health’s latest report on COVID-19 cases, as Polk County saw a marked decrease in the number of new positives in figures released this afternoon.

The bad news? The numbers still went up. Six new cases of COVID-19 brought the overall tally locally to 808 since tracking began in the spring, but no new hospital patients or deaths were reported in the latest update. That leaves those numbers at 38 and 11 respectively for the day.

After beginning the month with five new deaths and an uptick in new hospital patients and daily double-digit increases since August 5, Polk County got what might only be a brief respite based on recent reporting from the DPH. The trend is that Mondays usually have the least number of newly reported cases since it follows a day when a minimal number of tests would be reported over the weekend.

Numbers bear out that case. Just tracking the past six Mondays (July 6 through August 10,) the only day with a double-digit increase among the six was July 27, when 10 new positives were reported. (For reference: July 6 saw a case lost, July 13 added seven, July 20 added two, July 27 added 10, August 3 added seven, and today’s six new cases round out the statistics.)

What happens following a Monday is another general increase. That isn’t the case with every Monday, but 40% of the time over the past weeks there have been above average increases following a one-day easing of new positives.

From August 5 to present alone, 118 new positives have been reported for COVID-19, and 171 since the beginning of the month.

Of note, Polk County has now gone three days in a row without a new hospital patient admitted for medical treatment for the virus, and six days without a new death after several reported in the span of days between mid-July and the beginning of the month.

Polk County’s new positives on the day were just a tiny fraction of the 2,440 people who have COVID-19 added to the overall tally. That now sits just shy of another milestone at 219,023 total positives for the virus recorded since the end of February. That is out of more than 1.8 million tests administered, closing in on the 1.9 million tests administed within the coming days.

Out of that figure, some 20,676 people have needed hospital treatment, a one day increase of another 48 patients. Out of the total figure, 3,767 people needed intensive care treatment in a medical facility statewide.

Sadly, another 32 deaths were recorded in the past day from COVID-19, bringing the overall total to 4,229.

As of August 9, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention put the total of new cases at 48,690, finally reaching another milestone at 5,023,649 positives for COVID-19. New deaths went up by 558 to 161,842 since tracking began.