A new death in Polk County was reported on the day from COVID-19, with a 72-year-old woman the latest victim of the virus per the Georgia Department of Public Health’s latest reporting.

It was unknown whether any additional problems might have contributed to her death as well, according to the DPH’s latest update this afternoon. With her death – the first reported in six days – the overall number of Polk County residents who have died rose to 22.

Of note, all have been over the age of 55 as of this afternoon. The youngest victim so far was a 59-year-old woman who died in July.

Since the beginning of the month, four people have died from the virus where in comparison through all of September, only three people died.

The DPH’s afternoon data update on the virus noted that three new hospital patients from Polk County were admitted to area medical centers for treatment of COVID-19, bringing that total up to 114 on the day. That number had not increased in a week as well. Just this month alone, 12 new admissions for the virus in hospitals have been noted by state health officials in the data.

Polk County’s 1,577 total cases increased by 13 new positives in this afternoon’s report, with an increase of the biggest new number of tests results reported to the state at 293 on the day. The last time the county had that many new test results on the day was on Sept. 25, when 319 were added on the day. Currently, there have been 12,417 test results returned in total since tracking began in early March with the first positive posted by the state locally.

It marked another tenth of a percentage point decrease in Polk’s overall positive rate, the third time the number has decreased in a week.

The Georgia Department of Health’s overall total of positives went up on the day as well, with 1,331 new COVID-19 cases reported from Tuesday to Wednesday. That’s out of more than 3.4 million tests results returned to the state, and brought the overall number of positives since tracking began to 334,601.

That also kept the overall positive rate at 9.8% on the day.

New hospitalizations were also up from day-to-day reporting, with a new 156 people reported hospitalized as of the midweek data release from the DPH. The state put the total number of patients now at 29,918 overall, with 5,546 of those requiring further medical treatment in intensive care units around Georgia.

Statewide, the number of new deaths was slightly down from the Tuesday report at 19 at midweek and one of those hailing from Polk. Sadly, the death toll continues to climb overall due to the virus or complications worsened by its symptoms and that figure now stands at 7,470 since tracking began in late February.

National deaths were up by another 748 confirmed as of Monday for COVID-19 according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, bringing that total to 215,194 people who have died due to the virus or complications worsened by it.

The overall total per the Atlanta-based agency that have been confirmed now sits at 7,835,007 in total since earlier in the year, an increase of a new 47,459 positives. With an updated data tool from the federal health agency, additional tools are now available to the public to help track to the spread of the virus and potentially forecast what might happen next based on recent trends.

Despite the updated tools, one fact remains clear: Georgia remains one of the top in the country with the total number of positives. It sits fourth behind California, Texas and Florida who each have surpassed 700,000 cases each. California has more than 800,000 cases confirmed as of Tuesday.