A single digit increase in COVID-19 positives locally was the result of the afternoon report for Saturday from the Georgia Department of Public Health.

The department reported an increase of nine cases on the day, and no increase in other metrics locally as the state saw one of the biggest daily jumps in the past weeks. Local totals since tracking began stood at 1,396 COVID-19 positives, and statewide the number jumped 2,313 positives to land at 305,021 overall since late February.

Local number of positives trending downward over past weeks has resulted in continued decreases in the rate of new cases based on test results returned daily, but today’s figures were actually on the rise. Polk’s number of new cases was down to 7.8% as of Friday, and went back up by a tenth of a percentage point to 7.9%.

The overall positive rate did remain the same at 13.8% after a two-tenths decrease in the rate on Friday from 14%.

Georgia’s overall positive rate stood at 10.3%, back up a tenth of a percentage point on the day out of the 3,029,859 tests conducted statewide since tracking began in late February.

Sadly, another 63 people died in the past day from the virus or factors worsened by the symptoms of COVID-19, bringing the overall total to 6,599.

The number of people in Georgia admitted to medical centers across the state went up by another 135 patients, trending downward in new patient numbers over the past five days of reporting after increasing dramatically. Overall, Georgia hospitals have treated 27,338 patients for the symptoms of the virus, and have admitted 4,992 of those patients to intensive care units.

Nationwide, the numbers stood at 6,706,374 cases of COVID-19, an increase over the confirmed from Thursday to Friday of 49,575 positives. Sadly, 983 more people perished in that time as well, bringing the overall total closer to another grim milestone at 198,099 deaths.