Georgia Department of Public Health weekly update on school-age COVID cases in Cobb

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image of COVID-19 virus showing coronas with labels depicting each partThis illustration, created at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reveals ultrastructural morphology exhibited by coronaviruses. Note the spikes that adorn the outer surface of the virus, which impart the look of a corona surrounding the virion, when viewed electron microscopically. (public domain --provided by the CDC)

Posted By: Larry Felton Johnson August 13, 2021

In addition to the weekly numbers from the Cobb County School District, the Georgia Department of Public Health posts weekly updates on school-aged residents who test positive for COVID-19.

The GDPH presents its numbers a little differently from the school district’s reports.

GDPH breaks down the target population by age group, rather than by school, and explains their reasons for the segments they chose as follows:

Age categories were chosen based on the closest approximation to preschool/daycare aged children (0-4 years), K-12 school aged children (5-17 years old), and college/professional school aged adults (18-22 years). School Age Category: These age groups were chosen based on the closest approximation of children in elementary school (5-10 years), middle school (11-13 years), and high school (14-17 years).

The figures in all those groups are looking grim in this week’s report.

Cobb County’s school-aged COVID-19 cases

The numbers below come from School Data Report 8/13/2021.

For preschool children in Cobb, aged 0-4, there were 92 confirmed cases of COVID-19. That translates to a 14-day case rate of 196 per 100,000 of population for a community transmission level of “high” (anything 100 or greater is considered high community transmission). And this rate is designated as “increasing” over past weeks.

The 5-17 age group fares even worse. While the age group has more years to account for than the preschool years, the cases rate per 100,000 of population for the elementary, middle school, and high school years is 368, or more than three and a half times the rate to qualify for high community transmission. The count of cases over the 14-day period is 486, and the trend is increasing.

A lot has been written about the habits of college-aged students that spread the coronavirus, and Cobb County is no exception, as the 14-day rate of cases per 100,000 of population is a whopping 499 in the 18-22 age range.That’s nearly five times the case rate to qualify as high community transmission.

Statewide numbers

In each of the three school-aged categories the community transmission rate is high and increasing at the state-wide level.

To see the figures, and to compare counties within Georgia, follow this link.

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