Just seven days into 2021, and already Polk County has recorded the first death of the year – as well as new record numbers for COVID-19 cases added to the database at one time.

The Georgia Department of Public Health’s concerns over the increase in COVID-19 positives in the area is justified after 67 new cases were added to Polk County’s tally, bringing the overall figure to 2,771. It also increased the overall positive rate to 15% with the increase, as well as the two-week average to a new record high of 31.9%.

Alongside the new positives was the first death of 2021, that of an 85-year-old white male, who the Department of Public Health reported had co-morbidity factors involved in his death. That brought the overall death toll to 45 following the year-ending death on December 31 that saw 2020 conclude with 44 deaths.

Find a new list to track the COVID-19 deaths for 2021 here.

All told, 2021 has thus far seen 201 new cases added in just the first seven days of the month – a little under half of what the county reported for all of December 2020. Today’s increase made up just a small fraction of the second-largest increase on the new year of positives in Georgia at 7,105 new cases on the day.

Keep in mind, local numbers of 2,771 positives are out of 18,473 tests administered since tracking began.

A new hospitalization also increased Polk County’s total number of patients treated for the virus to 250, which put that figure at 29 on the New Year so far reported by the DPH’s state database tracking COVID-19 figures. Statewide, new patients treated for COVID-19 increased by 167 on the day, putting the overall figure at 43,796.

Today’s second-highest increase in new positives for the virus put the overall total of cases in Georgia since tracking began at 609,868 – an increase in the first seven days of the year of 34,473. The state’s positivity rate now sits at 10.4% overall. In terms of antigen-positive cases being tracked by the state, local numbers keep rising slowly toward the 1,000 mark, and state figures are increasing by thousands by the day as the year starts.

Polk County’s total number of antigen-positive results for COVID stood at 969, a jump of another 19 cases on the day. Georgia’s figure increased by a new 2,887 to a total of 113,762 people who have tested positive for the virus after the fact. Those figures are since tracking began in late February of 2020 on the state level.

The number of new antigen-positive cases on the local level has jumped by 85 in the first seven days of 2021.

Sadly, Georgia’s total number of deaths remains on the rise as well. Another 65 people were reported to have died in Georgia from COVID-19 in the afternoon report, bringing the overall tally to 10,100.

The total number of hospitalizations were up by another 167 on the day, bringing that figure since tracking began to 43,796 patients treated. Over the past seven days statewide, that figure now sits at 1,434 patients treated for COVID-19 since the beginning of the year. More startling is the jump in new ICU patients since 2021 began as well, a new 194 people who have needed intensive care treatment around Georgia.

Nationwide, the virus shows no signs of slowing down with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention now putting the total number of cases at 21,259,997 confirmed since tracking began last year on January 21. That’s a one day increase of another 299,304 new positives is around the equivalent of the entire population of Tampa, Florida getting COVID-19 in a day.

The number of deaths continued to climb as well per the CDC’s update this afternoon. They put the total of deaths now at 359,849, an increase of another 3,844 people who perished due to COVID-19 or related causes.