For the third day in a row, single digit case growth has been the story for Polk County, and a slowdown has been noted for the day in new positives on the state and national level as well according to the latest release of figures from state and national figures.

Polk County’s new number of COVID-19 positives stood at just five on the day, an increase to 1,481 reported overall out of 11,052 tests conducted since tracking began in early March for local cases. Today’s positive rate stood at 13.4%, and the two week rate decreased again to 6.5% in new test results received by the Georgia Department of Public Health.

It also marks the fifth day in a row without a new hospital patient admitted to area medical centers for the virus that have come from Polk County, and the last time a death was reported was in early September. The number of people who have required hospitalization for the virus locally stood at 98, and the number of deaths at 17.

The number of new cases day-to-day reported by the DPH also dropped dramatically as the week began, going from 1,381 on Saturday to 826 on Sunday, and now 619 on Monday. That could be a trend seen in test reporting where weekend decreases are followed up on Tuesdays with big increases through the rest of the week, and then a three-day slowdown again.

Overall, the new increase put the total number of positives at 315,281 statewide since tracking began in late February.

Georgia’s total number of tests stood at more than 3.1 million (just shy of 3.2 million) combined molecular and antibody tests performed, bringing the percent positive to drop again to 10.1%

However, the number of new deaths and hospitalizations was also down on the state level.

After lower weekend increases, the number of new patient admitted stood at 18 heading into the start of the week, down another 8 on the day after a weekend slowdown. The number of deaths more than halved from day-to-day as well, reported at 15 on the day.

That brought the total number of hospitalizations to 28,197 in total, and out of that figure some 5,194 people since COVID-19’s spread began around Georgia have needed treatment in Intensive Care Units. Statewide, the death toll from COVID-19 or issues worsened by the virus’s symptoms stood at 6,961.

Nationally, the numbers dropped some as well according to the figures released today by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Only 36,335 new cases were reported between Saturday and Sunday, bringing the overall total to 7,095,422 people who have been confirmed to have tested positive for COVID-19. The U.S. death toll was up by only 295 in that time frame, bringing the number of people reported perished from COVID-19 or related ailments nationally to 204,328.