As the final days of 2020 are coming to a close, COVID-19’s toll on Polk County isn’t over just yet. The Georgia Department of Public Health reported a new death from the virus in their afternoon data update, along with 38 new positives for the virus locally.

The latest death reported is that of a 74-year-old man with co-morbidity factors, per the DPH database. His death brings the overall toll to 43 on the year, and is the 10th of the month of December.

Here’s the full list of those who died in 2020 from COVID-19.

Alongside the new positives reported today, additional antigen positives – 27 on the day – brought the total to 844. With data in hand, the 13.8% positive rate and total of 2,538 COVID-19 cases in total locally provides a figure of 18,391 total tests administered since tracking began.

The increase of a tenth of a percentage point on the day in the overall rate of positives also coincided with another increase in the two-week average of 1.6% with today’s reported figure of 28.4%.

Polk County’s number of hospitalizations also increased on the day, up by another patient to 218 overall on the year. That’s an increase of 51 new patients as of the beginning of the month.

Georgia’s number of positives increased overall by another 5,496 cases on the day to 558,177 confirmed cases of COVID-19. The overall rate remained the same for the state at 10% with more than 5.3 million tests administered and 401,264 antibody tests included in that figure. Georgia’s overall two-week average is at 15.5%, well below the increasing percentage locally.

The antigen positive number for the state increased by another 3,737 cases, bringing that total to 96,566 on the day.

Georgia medical centers treated another 375 patients for the virus as of Wednesday afternoon’s report as well, bringing that figure up to 41,778. Out of that total, some 7,375 people have needed intensive care treatment for COVID-19.

Sadly, along with the reported death in Polk County the state’s total of those who have perished from the virus and related causes rose by another 49 on the day. That brings the overall total of people who have died from COVID-19 with or without co-morbidity factors to 9,808.

That figure doesn’t include probable deaths, now at 1,038 across Georgia. Polk County’s figure remained at two on the day.

Nationally, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention put their December 30 number of new positives at 199,282 new cases, bringing the overall total to 19,432,125 since tracking began.

Total deaths now stood at 337,419, an increase of another 3,390 people who have died nationwide.

Some good news on the COVID-19 stimulus front: many Americans have already received another one-time payment of $600. The promised $2,000 still hasn’t made it through Congress with Senate Majority Leader now saying that the request from President Donald Trump passed by the house has no path to success at this time.