The toll extracted by the novel coronavirus 2019 continues to grow in Polk County, statewide and around the nation in the latest reports from state and national authorities. Three more deaths were reported in Polk County in today’s report, along with a new hospital patient and 11 more positives for the virus according to the Georgia Department of Public Health.

That put the number of deaths at nine, the number of cases at 675 and hospitalizations at 32 in total across the board locally.

State health officials reported in the daily update that a 90+ year old female, an 83-year-old female and a 76-year-old female all who had pre-existing health factors were reported to have died from COVID-19 in today’s report. The Department of Community Health has not yet put out a new daily report over the weekend to confirm whether these latest deaths occurred in a local nursing or long term care facility.

Sunday’s death toll from COVID-19 marked the highest number of new deaths at one time, usually, one being added per day over the past months, and for more than a month no additional deaths in the county reported at all.

Polk County’s first reported death came in late May, a 67-year-old male who the Georgia Department of Public Health reported had no pre-existing issues that could have contributed to his ability to fight off the infection. The state did incorrectly report a death prior to July, but new deaths suddenly went up in past weeks.

It started on July 21 with an 84-year-old male was reported to have died, and followed on the next day on July 22 with a 59 year old female. Both had comorbidity factors reported with their deaths as well. Then on July 24 and July 25, the DPH reported that a 79-year-old female and a 81-year-old male died back-to-back. The fifth death in July came when a 62-year-old female passed away. She had not suffered from any pre-existing conditions that would have contributed to her death.

Today’s three deaths were a fifth of the state total of 15, which increased the overall tally to 3,840.

Georiga’s overall tally of new COVID-19 cases on the day went up by another 3,172 people who have tested positive, bringing the statewide total since tracking began to 193,177. Out of that figure, 19,064 people have needed hospital treatment, an increase of 69 new patients on the day. In all, 3,496 patients and counting have needed intensive care treatment.

As of the August 1 confirmed count from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID-19 cases grew by 58,947 from the July 31 tally to 4,601,526. Out of that total, 1,132 new deaths were reported to bring the number of people who have died in the United States to 154,002.