Polk County’s number of COVID-19 cases has slowed down some – sitting at 1,265 in total as of today – but sadly, a new death was reported once again to bring the overall tally to 16 since tracking began, and another hospital patient was admitted in the past 24 hours per the Georgia Department of Public Health’s latest figures.

The death of an 85-year-old male with co-morbidity factors involved was the first reported for the month of September after the number of people who have perished locally from the virus began to increase in July. This is the second 85-year-old man to die from the virus or from the worsening of other factors due to the symptoms in recent days. The first was on August 27, when two people died to cap off the month of August at 9.

Health officials also reported an increase of 11 new positives for the virus locally, plus another hospitalization in the past 24 hours. That brought the tally of patients treated for the virus (or in treatment ) to 82 overall since tracking began.

Polk County’s overall positive rate went down slightly to 14.5% since the pandemic began and widespread testing became available. Locally over the past two weeks, that percentage of positives has been at 12.4% in recent days.

Georgia’s overall tally of COVID-19 positives went up again by another 2,132 to bring the overall total statewide to 279,354 cases since tracking began, out of a total of 2.7+ million tests conducted, which comes out to 10.5% of positives for the overall number of tests.

State medical centers also admitted another 143 patients who are suffering from symptoms due to COVID-19 that have worsened enough to need hospitalization, bringing that figure up to 25,402 overall. Out of the overall total, some 4,664 people have been admitted to intensive care units across the state since late February.

The number who have died went up by 65 in the past 24 hours, with the state now at 5,931 who have died from the virus.

Nationally, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention put the total number of confirmed cases from midweek to Thursday at 6,132,074, up another 44,666 cases. The United States lost another 1,081 people to COVID-19, bringing the tally since tracking began to 186,173 deaths.