Dr. Janet Memark, the District Health Director of Cobb & Douglas Public Health (CDPH) struck an optimistic note in her latest COVID-19 update distributed this afternoon.

She wrote:

It really gives me pleasure to say that the last two weeks’ trends for our counties have been the most optimistic that we’ve had in a long while. We continue to see declining trends in case rates across both counties. Please remember that they are still in high transmission, but they are heading in the right direction. We also see percentage positive rates that are also very promising. Hospitalizations also remain at lower levels and do not seem to be trending upwards at this time.

We also see the CDC joining in the optimism and making new recommendations for people fully vaccinated and their ability to go mask-free.

At this time, we have 31% of our Cobb County residents fully vaccinated, and 21% of our Douglas County residents vaccinated. We continue to be under the national statistics and need to keep going with vaccinations to ensure that this pandemic remains controlled.

We are on the right track. We urge all citizens 12 years and older to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

The vaccines are safe and effective and have played a major role in our battle against COVID-19.