The big news from COVID-19 today was that President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump both tested positive for COVID-19 and that the president is suffering mild symptoms from the virus. No additional information about his condition has been released thus far, and others that have interacted with President Trump have tested positive other than Hope Hicks, who contracted the virus as well. As of this hour, he is set to be flown to Walter Reed Medical Center for further treatment according to live reporting from national news networks.

Locally, the numbers increased past a new milestone of overall positives and another hospital patient was admitted according to the afternoon figures released by the Georgia Department of Public Health. After an increase of nine new cases on the day, overall numbers for positives locally stood at 1,507 since the first case was reported in early March.

The DPH also noted the increase of hospital patients by one, bringing that figure in total to 105 admitted for treatment of the virus overall. The number of deaths remained flat on the day at 18.

With the increase of 67 new tests reported to the DPH on the day, Polk County’s overall positive rate remained at 13.4%, but the two week moving average went down to 7% after an increase. Overall, some 11,246 test results have been reported back from Polk County residents to the state health agency since tracking began.

Statewide, another milestone was surpassed with the increase of another 1,337 positives to bring the overall figure to 320,634 COVID-19 positives reported in Georgia. That increase was noted with the positive rate still at 10.1% overall since tracking began and more than 3.2 million tests reported back to the state.

A slight decrease was noted in the number of new hospitalizations day-to-day, but the overall figure remained on the rise as it increased by another 123 new admissions to medical centers statewide, and brought the overall tally to 28,791 people who have needed treatment for COVID-19.

Sadly, the statewide death toll increased by another 45 people to bring the total to 7,106 who have died from the virus since tracking began in late February.

Nationally, that number jumped by another 900 new deaths from Wednesday to Thursday confirmed by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, putting the total at 207,302 who have died from COVID-19 or the symptoms worsening other conditions in a patient suffering from the virus.

The total number of cases confirmed by the Atlanta-based agency now stood at 7,260,465, an increase of a new 47,046 positives as of October 1.

Also of note in COVID-19 news today is another policy change on testing from the Georgia Department of Public Health for the area due to the lack of demand for weekend testing at one Saturday per month for October in the Haralson, Paulding and Polk grouping for testing sites. Polk County’s next available Saturday testing day will be on October 17.

The former home of the Georgia Department of Labor does offer free testing on Tuesdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at 262 N. Park Blvd., Cedartown.