The Saturday afternoon report was a grim one again as the Georgia Department of Public Health reported the second death in the month of September due to COVID-19 in recent days.

The report stated that the latest death from the virus was a 67-year-old woman who had comorbidity factors. Her death brought the total to 17 overall since tracking began for the virus across the state and country, and was one of 48 in Georgia reported on the day.

The state health agency also reported another 10 new positives for the virus, bringing the total to 1,275 overall since the first case was reported in Polk County in mid-March. The Georgia Department of Public Health’s data stated that Polk County’s overall positive rate was at 14.5%, and the past two weeks the positive tests reported were down to 12.2% overall.

Polk County’s number of hospital patients remained flat for the day at 82, per the state data.

Overall, Georgia’s tally of new cases went up by another 2,285 positives in the past 24 hours to sit at 281,548 COVID-19 cases reported statewide, out of more than 2.7 million tests administered since late February. The state added another 99 hospital patients being treated for the virus, bringing that total to 25,501 for the first half of the weekend. Included in the overall total are some 4,681 people who have needed Intensive Care Unit stays for treatment of the virus’ symptoms.

COVID-19 has claimed the lives – or been a contributing factor in the deaths of – 5,977 people statewide since tracking began. Much in the same way that other viruses and disease contribute to the deaths of people, COVID-19 isn’t in most cases the primary factor for the death of a person. Likely, other areas (for example: diabetes, heart and respiratory diseases, and auto-immune syndromes) play a factor in the death of individuals who contract the virus and are unable to overcome the severity of its symptoms in conjunction with whatever ailments they already have.

Please continue to remember to wear a mask while out in public, stay six feet apart from people, avoid crowds whenever possible and stay home if you are sick.

Nationwide, the total number of COVID-19 cases increased by another 49,400 to 6,181,474 overall according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The number of deaths went up from Thursday to Friday by 986, bringing the tally to 187,159.