COVID-19 cases remain on the uptick with a new daily record reported for Polk County, but the number of hospitalizations required and the deaths from the virus remained flat once again according to the latest from the Georgia Department of Public Health.

Polk County reported 22 new cases in the past 24 hours for COVID-19, but what hasn’t increased significantly are the number of hospitalizations – which remained at 18 – and there remains just one death locally. The total number of cases in Polk County now sits at 319 since tracking began.

Viewed a a whole, less than 1% of people in Polk County have contracted the virus, and of the people who have gotten the virus, less than a tenth of a percent have required hospitalization. Two new local residents in the past week increased the total number of hospitalizations overall, and taken since Tuesday that makes just 2% of new cases that have required treatment beyond home care.

The state did report 86 new cases of the virus since July 7. The 22 new cases beat the record previously set earlier in the week.

That’s the good news for local cases at this time.

COVID-19 numbers for the state as a whole – especially when it comes to hospitalizations and deaths – have also remained low despite increased daily tallies. Georgia added 268 new patients in the past 24 hours to bring the total number of people who have required treatment for COVID-19 beyond what can be achieved at home stood at 13,205 since tracking began in November.

So out of the 114,401 people who have tested positive for the virus at this point – a daily increase of 3,120 – some 11% of people have needed to go to the hospital since late February. Of the total, 2,610 people have needed treatment in intensive care.

Georgia’s death toll is still increasing, but slowly. Today’s (July 11) number of new deaths stood at 13, bringing the total to 2,996 people since the pandemic began.

Around Polk, the largest increases remain in Bartow County along the I-75 corridor, where their total has been going up steadily in the past days and is now at 926 total cases. That was a daily increase of 47 new cases in the past 24 hours and a new hospitalization to bring their total to 163. The number of deaths remained flat at 42.

In Paudling County, the cases have been going up by the day. They added 26 new cases to bring the total to 838 people who have tested positive, and added a hospital patient in the past 24 hours to bring the tally to 99. Deaths in Paulding remained at 16.

Floyd County posted a new hospital patient to bring the total to 60, remained flat in deaths at 15 and posted a new tally of 716 cases, an increase of 23 over the past day.

Haralson had no movement at all over the past 24 hours, remaining at 105 cases, 17 hospitalizations and five deaths.

Nationwide, new CDC data had yet to be published. The New York Times put new cases on July 10 at 68,241 and 825 new deaths.