Dr. Janet Memark, the District Health Director for Cobb & Douglas Public Health, distributed the following update on the state of the COVID-19 pandemic in Cobb and Douglas counties.

Good afternoon Cobb and Douglas Counties,
 
With the heat and the sunshine comes some good news throughout our district. We have continued to see declines in the case rates for COVID-19 throughout the county, putting us at 48/100,000 people in Cobb County and 47/100,000 people in Douglas County. Hospitalizations remain relatively low at this time. The percentage of tests coming back positive remains 2.1% and under.
 
We continue to see the relaxation of COVID-19 guidelines throughout the country as vaccination rates continue to rise. In Cobb County, 49% of citizens have received their first vaccine dose, while 36% of Douglas County residents have received theirs. 

Even with our progress, we see countries throughout the world continue to have incredible difficulty beating back this pandemic in the face of the new Delta variant that is being seen in India, Great Britain, and almost 80 countries. It is considered to be more contagious and possibly more deadly than our first versions of COVID-19.

What is hopeful for us is that the COVID-19 vaccines available at this time are very effective against this COVID variant. Even better news—we have the vaccine readily available throughout our district and the United States for free.

This is certainly a huge blessing compared to the unavailability of vaccines throughout most of the world. Of people who are being hospitalized at this time, the vast majority of them are unvaccinated. A recent study coming from the Cleveland Clinic showed that of the 4,300 patients admitted to their hospitals from January 1 to April 13, 99.75% of those patients were not fully vaccinated.
 
Cobb & Douglas Public Health will continue to offer the COVID-19 vaccine and other vaccinations to the public. Beginning on June 18, vaccinations will stop at Jim Miller Park and move to the health department locations in Acworth, Smyrna and Marietta. Vaccinations will stop at Arbor Place on June 30 and move to the health department location on Selman Drive. As well as these four locations, Cobb & Douglas Public Health will continue to work with the CORE organization to work with other community organizations and businesses to bring COVID-19 vaccinations to people throughout the county.  Please remember that anyone 12 and older can get the vaccine, as we gear up for back-to-school vaccinations, as well.
 
We hope that we will continue to make progress against this pandemic and continue to return things back to normal. Please be safe and enjoy your summer.


Sincerely, Janet Pak Memark M.D., M.P.H, F.A.C.P.
District Health Director
District 3-1: Cobb & Douglas Public Health

For more information about COVID-19 in Cobb County and Georgia ….

The daily status report from the Georgia Department of Public Health is posted daily at 3 p.m.

In addition to the total confirmed cases, hospitalization and death, the report includes other information such as demographic breakdown by race/ethnicity, sex and age.

You can also download the data in CSV format at this link, so you can open it in a spreadsheet and build different views of the data yourself.

There is also a guide to understanding the data here.

The Georgia Department of Public Health describes the data collection process as follows:

The Daily Status Report is updated once daily at 3 p.m. Data are reported to the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) from numerous labs, hospitals and providers in various ways.

Electronic Laboratory Reports (ELR) are data files transmitted to DPH that contain patient identifiers, test information and results. Individual “case” reports may also be submitted through DPH’s secure web portal, SendSS, from healthcare providers and other required reporters. These reports often contain more specific patient information. In either reporting scenario, data may be incomplete.

Data displayed on the DPH Daily Status Report reflect the information transmitted to DPH, but may not reflect all current tests or cases due to timing of testing and data reporting