Whether it is an effect caused by the new testing policy put in place by the Georgia Department of Public Health, or if the numbers are truly beginning to go down remains to be seen. One thing is clear: local and statewide new positives for COVID-19 are trending downward in a big way over the holiday weekend.

Polk County has reported just six cases of COVID-19 over the past three days. Three new positives were reported on Sunday, a new case on Monday and two more today bring the overall total to just 1,281 since tracking began for the virus on the local and state level in late February. Also flat over the holiday weekend and into the start of the week: no new deaths, and no new hospital patients reported locally that would be admitted to area medical facilities.

Georgia figures are also down, with the number of positives over the past three days fluctuating but well below new daily tallies of cases compared to recent weeks and months.

On Sunday, the new positives stood at 1,664; Monday they were down to 612 and today back up again to 1,595 new cases of COVID-19. The number of new deaths have also stayed below 100 in total over the past three days, and combined are at 93 from Sunday through today’s reporting.

The number of new hospital patients on the state level also remained below 100 over Labor Day weekend and into the start of the week, sitting at 88 in total.

Overall, that put Georgia’s positive cases in total at 285,350 since tracking began, remaining at a 10.4% positive rate compared to the nearly 2.8 million tests conducted statewide since late February. Georgia’s total number of patients treated for the virus stood at 25,589 and out of that some 4,698 people have needed intensive care treatment for the virus.

Sadly, the 93 deaths reported over the past three days raised the number in total to 6,070. Georgia surpassed the 6,000 mark with some 60 deaths reported on Sunday.

Nationally, the number stood at 6,287,362 positives overall, with 188,688 deaths per the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s reporting as of today.