The number of COVID-19 deaths has jumped by another two in this afternoon’s report as new cases increased by more than 120 cases over the first two days of September.

Polk County saw an increase on Wednesday of 63 cases and added another 61 cases in this afternoon’s update by the Georgia Department of Public Health. That put the overall total of PCR positive test results at 5,148 since the first local COVID case was reported in March 2020. Antigen positives of 1,975 bring the overall total for the county of COVID positives to 7,123 in total.

Hospitalizations went up over the past two days as well, with Wednesday’s figure increasing by 10 and another two added in this afternoon’s report from the DPH.

That brings the overall figure to 433 in total for Polk County since tracking began.

Among those recent cases reported were in the Polk County Jail, still under quarantine conditions as of midweek with 8 cases of COVID-19 within the inmate population and others awaiting test results. Jailers are also out of work with the virus, per Polk County Sheriffs Office Major Rachel Haddix, the Jail Administrator.

The Polk School District numbers are also among a population locally seeing growth in cases in recent weeks, as of this afternoon around 3 p.m. stood at 120 cases. Cedartown High’s 30 cases remained the top of the district, with 27 cases reported at Rockmart High and 20 cases at Cedartown Middle. That’s among students and staff, per the district’s daily update posted on their website.

Cases have overall been low so far in elementary school reporting, with the top as of this afternoon being Van Wert Elementary with 12 cases and Westside with 11 cases. Districtwide, more than 1% of students and staff have reported having COVID-19 in recent days.

Sadly, two new deaths added during this afternoon’s update brought the total to 93, and put up another 13 probable deaths since tracking began in Polk County.

In 2021 alone, 49 people have died in Polk County, surpassing the 2020 death toll by five.

Statewide, Polk County’s two were just a small percentage of the 131 reported statewide, along with 243 hospitalizations.

Georgia added 6,074 new positives, another 2,614 antigen positives to bring the overall total since March 2020 to 1.1 million plus PCR cases, and 317,940 antigen positives.

The statewide total of deaths reached 19,936 as of Thursday afternoon, 73,777 hospitalizations and 12,108 ICU admissions.

Nationally, a new 171,123 positives were reported nationwide as of this afternoon, with 39.4 million-plus positives reported nationwide since January 2020. 641,725 people have died since last year when the pandeic started, with a new 1,328 deaths reported as of this afternoon across the country.

Along with Wyoming, states with the highest number of new cases remain Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi and Tennessee.

Vaccination nationwide stood at 175 million plus people have been fully vaccinated, with 205 million in the United States getting at least a singe does.

The statewide figures stood at 9.7 million doses administered to 4,551,690 fully vaccinated Georgians, and 5.3 million plus with at least a single dose.

Polk County’s at 31% fully vaccinated, with 37% of people with at least a single dose. That 13,014 fully vaccinated people, and 15,365 people opverall with at least a single dose.