The number of COVID-19 cases jumped dramatically by double digits to end the week and another patient was admitted to hospital for treatment, according to the figures provided by the Georgia Department of Public Health’s figures for September 11.

With today’s 22 confirmed positives added to Polk County’s overall tally, that put the figure at 1,324 for the day, with 86 hospital patients and 17 deaths from the virus reported since cases began appearing locally in mid-March. Fortunately, no new deaths have thus far been reported since September 5, with only two on the month thus far.

Local hospitalizations have been back on the increase in the past few days however. The four reported in three days broke a short trend of several days without a new patient checking in to an area medical facility for symptoms caused by COVID-19. September has seen eight new patients admitted due to the virus alone.

Polk County’s positive rate sat at 14.2% overall, down a tenth of a percent as new testing results continue to be added to the tally daily, and over the past two weeks it has now dropped out of a hot spot zone to 9.1% of new positives reported after sitting at more than 16% at one point in recent weeks, and was down as low as 10.2% earlier in the week and continues to drop.

That ultimately translates to fewer reported cases of the virus being transmitted, but that could be due to fewer people going to be tested at any given time. (Those numbers are still a project I have to work on… -KtE)

Statewide, the number of new positives was down again after hitting a midweek high of 2,081 new positives, and has slowly gone back down over the past two days to 1,930 new positives on Thursday, and now 1,863 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed as of today (Sept. 11.) However, the number of new positives today did put the state over another milestone number for the virus’ transmission, sitting at exactly 290,781 since tracking began.

That’s also seen some decrease in the percentage of people who are positive for the virus, but over the past several days that figure has remained at a solid 10.4% of the total tests that have been conducted, well over 2.8 million at this point.

Georgia hospitals admitted another 101 patients in the past 24 hours, putting the overall figure for people treated for the virus at 26,163. Out of that figure, some 4,794 have needed intensive care treatment in medical facilities across the state. That is a number that has been going up by double digits in past days as well.

Sadly, 46 people died in the past day to put the number who have perished due to COVID-19 or because the virus’s symptoms made other ailments worse. That put Georgia’s death toll since tracking began earlier in the year at 6,246 people.

COVID-19’s toll on the nation stood at 191,353 people who have died, up another 1,091 people in the past 24 hours per the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The Atlanta-based agency stated that 6,381,013 have been confirmed to have the virus since the beginning of the year, up another 37,451 confirmed positives from Wednesday to Thursday this week.