Cobb County’s COVID-19 case rate continues to rapidly climb, and has now reached a 14-day rate of 649 cases per 100,000 residents, 6.49 times the rate of 100 per 100,000 that represents the threshold of high community transmission.

In other words COVID-19 is spreading rapidly in our community.

Douglas County continues to maintain an even higher number, at 709 cases per 100,000.

The Cobb & Douglas Public Health web site regularly posts updates on the community spread of the disease, and the numbers in recent weeks have tended to spike upward with each new release.

Georgia Department of Public Health Daily Status Report

Each day at approximately 3 p.m. the Georgia Department of Public Health publishes its COVID-19 daily status report.

In addition to publishing the daily numbers, cumulative totals are displayed.

The report describes how each days numbers are gathered as follows:

These numbers show confirmed cases, antigen positive cases, hospitalizations, and deaths that have been newly reported since the last website update (the website is not updated on weekends and state holidays). These are included in the overall totals above. The cases reported today may not equal the difference in total cases between the last website update and today because previously reported cases may be removed as duplicate reports are corrected or may be reclassified as additional information is collected during case investigation.

Yesterday, statewide, there were 14,130 confirmed cases of COVID-19, 37 confirmed deaths, and 295 hospitalizations.

The statewide count since the pandemic began is 996,653 confirmed cases, 19,020 confirmed deaths, and 69,147 hospitalizations, 11,663 of those requiring admission to an ICU.

There were an additional 2,294 probable but not confirmed deaths from COVID-19. The GDPH describes that category of cases as follows:

This number includes individuals who are antigen positive or individuals with compatible illness and known close contact to a case that were either reported to DPH as deceased by healthcare providers or medical examiners/coroners, identified by death certificates with COVID-19 indicated as the cause of death, or there is evidence that COVID contributed to the individual’s death OR individuals with a death certificate that has COVID-19 indicated as the cause of death and there is no laboratory evidence for SARS-CoV-2.

Other source of information on COVID-19

There are numerous sources on the spread of COVID-19.

The Cobb County School District posts a weekly report of cases within the schools on Fridays that you can visit at this link.

The Georgia Department of Health also posts a Friday weekly report on cases among school-aged children, and can be viewed at both the statewide level and by individual counties. This report is arranged by age segment approximating preschool children (0-4), elementary through high school (5-17) and college age (18-22).

For a national and international overview of the pandemic Johns Hopkins University of Medicine has a long-running dashboard where you can view data from both the U.S. and around the world.

For guidelines on COVID-19 the CDC website has a wealth of information.