According to the weekly School-aged COVID-19 Surveillance Report, released this afternoon, the rate of cases of COVID-19 reported among school-aged residents over the past two weeks have dropped, but are still well above the threshold of high community transmission.

This decline has occurred in each of the three age categories the Georgia Department of Public Health (GDPH) tracks (pre-school, elementary to high school, and college aged).

In the 0-4 year old range (preschool) there were 147 new cases for a rate of 314 cases per 100,000 of population over a two-week period.

In the 5-17 year old range which includes most public-school-aged residents there were 844 new cases over the past two weeks for a case rate of 639 per 100,000 of the population, significantly more than the 468 cases per 100,000 that Cobb & Douglas Public Health reports for the county as a whole.

College-aged residents, in the 18-22 year old range, showed 594 cases per 100,000 of population over a two-week period.

So according to the way the GDPH tracks cases in the School-aged COVID-19 Surveillance Report the age group within Cobb with the highest rate of spread is elementary, middle, and high school aged children (5-17 years old).

Cobb’s case rate is comparable to adjacent counties for school-aged residents. The 14-day case rate per 100,000 in Fulton county for 5-17 year olds is 646, Douglas 490, Paulding 307. Cherokee 500. All those counties are still showing a high rate of community transmission, but are dropping from recent highs.