According to the latest figures by Cobb & Douglas Public Health, the 14-day case rate for COVID-19 in Cobb County is now at 670, or 6.7 times the threshold for designation as high community transmission.

Health officials have been sounding the alarm on the rapid rise in COVID cases in the county since June.

Dr. Janet Memark, the Community Health Director of CDPH has been sounding the alarm for months now, and you can read about it here and here.

The scarcity of critical care beds has been particularly alarming. The latest figures for Region N, which includes Cherokee, Cobb, Douglas, and Paulding counties, shows 185 ICU beds in use out of a total of 195 total ICU beds, or 94.87 percent of capacity.

Emergency Department beds for the region stand at 243 ED beds in use out of 284 total beds, or 85.56 percent capacity.

WSB-TV reported that Wellstar Kennestone Hospital has requested a temporary mobile morgue due to the high number of COVID cases in their ICU and critical care units.

Cobb’s Declaration of Emergency

With critical care beds in Cobb County in critically low supply, and the delta variant of COVID-19 rampant in the county, Cobb County Board of Commissioners Chairwoman Lisa Cupid signed a Declaration of Emergency, to remain in effect for 30 days.

Read the Declaration of Emergency by following this link.

According to the news release announcing the action, the declaration allows the county to put an Emergency Operations Plan into effect.

“Public health officials are urging us to do whatever we can to encourage people to get the COVID vaccine and wear masks while near other people,” Chairwoman Cupid said. “This declaration will open the doors to provide assistance to others in the county who need it and highlight the critical stress this surge has put on our local healthcare facilities.”