After three days of only single-digit increases in the number of positives locally, Polk County saw an increase again in the teens per the Georgia Department of Public Health’s latest report for the midweek.

Polk County’s new positives were up by 14 from Tuesday’s increase of just two cases and six over the holiday weekend in total, and a new hospital patient was admitted in the report over the past day. That brings the total to 1,295 positives in total, and 83 hospital patients since tracking began. No new deaths were reported and remained at 17 in total.

It breaks a downward trend over the past days for local cases, beginning with a three-day single digit decrease in new positives from August 30 through September 1, and following a pattern of double digit positives over four days but going from 16 and 18 on Sept. 2 and Sept. 3 to 11 and 10 on Sept. 4 and Sept. 5.

Those figures are well down from the 48 positives that is the single-day record of new cases reported by DPH on August 25.

The state’s figures put the percentage of positives in the past two weeks down over the past several days as well, from 12.2% on Sept. 7 to 10.2% reported today.

Overall, the number of positives compared to the tests administered to those who listed Polk County as their home is at 14.4%. That puts the total number of tests administered to date at around 8,994 to date.

Georgia’s number of positives sat at 287,287 to date, up another 2,081 from the previous day’s report. Some 256 additional people were admitted to the hospital, bringing that figure to 25,845 patients admitted to statewide medical centers. Out of that figure, 4,736 people have needed additional treatment in intensive care units around Georgia.

The state’s number of deaths went up again to 60 deaths after a decrease over the holiday weekend, sitting at 6,128 overall.

Overall, Georgia’s number of positives is down to 10.4% overall, with more than 2.8+ million tests administered including the antibody tests.

Nationally, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention put the total of positives for the country at 6,310,663 since tracking began, the confirmed cases up by 23,301 over the past day. The number of deaths nationwide was up by 459, now at 189,147 in total since the start of 2020.

State officials did release figures on tracking of new COVID-19 cases, and announced another metro area testing site change.

From Sept. 1 through Sept. 8, the state reported a decrease of new cases to 11.7%, with a 48% decrease from a July 24 peak in new positives for the virus. The highest percentage of cases are coming from the metro Atlanta area, specifically in Cobb, Gwinnett and Fulton counties.

“Daily hospitalizations for COVID-19 have decreased 13.4% since Sept. 1. Hospitalizations have decreased 48.2% since a daily high of 3,200 July 30,” the state also reported in the release.

They did release some areas where “outbreaks of concern” are occurring, with the largest of those being in long term care facilities, prisons and jails and in schools and manufacturing facilities. The release provided a graph from state officials without the context for fully understanding the numbers behind the outbreaks reported in the graph. (Whether they are individual facilities/schools/etc. or if they are counting by percentage? Screen grab to help you understand below.)

Regardless, please continue to follow social distancing guidelines, wear a mask out in public and use hand sanitizer and wash your hands thoroughly for at least 20 seconds to help keep yourself and others around you from the virus.

The state also announced in the release the following: “The mega-testing site at Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson International airport will close Friday, Sept.
11.”