Counting COVID cases: New record of local positives, three additional hospital patients added in the midweek report

A new record of 40 cases added in the past 24 hours brought the number of local positives closer to 900 in Polk County and the number of new hospital cases grew as well according to the Georgia Department of Public Health’s midweek report released this afternoon.

That brought the number of positives in total for the virus to 877 since tracking began in the state. The DPH added three more patients who have needed medical care in the past day, bringing the number to 41 hospital cases. Polk County remained at 11 deaths in the in today’s report.

Today’s increase marked a new record of one-day positive added to the overall tally, which was previously set on July 15 when the numbers were still below 400.

Cases locally have now gone up by 669 since July 1, and since the beginning of the month has increased by 218 cases. The number of new hospital patients has gone up by another 10 in the past 12 days as well.

Statewide, the number of new cases of COVID-19 increased by 3,660 positives, bringing the overall tally since February to 226,153. That is out of more than 1.9 million cases (growing closer by the day to 2 million, or around 17% of the state’s total population tested.

The latest numbers put the number of Georgians who have tested positive out of the overall at around 10.8% of the number of people who have gone to testing sites or doctor’s offices to be tested for the virus.

As of Wednesday afternoon, another 348 people were admitted to the hospital for treatment, bringing that figure to 21,379 hospitalizations since tracking began in the winter. Out of that overall figure, 3,929 patients have needed intensive care treatment.

Sadly, another 109 people died of the virus in the past day in Georgia, bringing that overall figure to 4,456.

The U.S. death toll from the virus is now up to 163,651 overall since tracking began by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, up another 1,244 people in the past day. The overall number of cases confirmed as of August 11 sat at 5,119,711, or 55,540 new positives in the past 24 hours.