Cobb County Board of Commissioners Chairwoman Lisa Cupid and County Manager Jackie McMorris have decided to hold the next few BOC meeting virtually due to the county’s spike in COVID-19 cases.

According to yesterday afternoon’s Daily Status Report on COVID-19 from the Georgia Department of Public Health, the county has experience a new case rate of 2,068 cases per 100,000 of the population over the past 14 days, many times more than the threshold for high community transmission as defined by the CDC.

The county distributed the following press release

January 6, 2021 – After meeting with public health officials, Cobb County’s Chairwoman and County Manager have decided to hold the next several Board of Commissioners meetings via teleconference.  The dramatic rise in COVID-19 cases in the county has prompted public health officials to recommend holding meetings virtually to avoid bringing people into close contact.

The following three meetings are now scheduled to be held via teleconference:

BOC Agenda Work Session, Monday, January 10 at 9 a.m.
BOC Regular Meeting, Tuesday, January 11 at 9 a.m.

BOC Work Session, Tuesday, January 11 at 1:30 p.m.

Public participation in public hearings and public comment will still be available.

Details on how the public can participate virtually and live-stream the meetings are available at https://www.cobbcounty.org/communications/news/notice-upcoming-cobb-boc-meetings-be-conducted-virtually

For more data on COVID in Cobb County and statewide

Cobb & Douglas Public Health runs the case rate on their home page, although it is not updated frequently.

Visit the Cobb & Douglas Public Health home page by following this link

A more frequently updated summary of the statistics on COVID for Cobb County is the CDC’s County View page for Cobb County. The numbers come from the Georgia Department of Public Health but are displayed in a much easier-to-read way than the sprawling GDPH website. From this page you can get the one-week figures on the number of new cases, case rate per 100,000 of population, hospitalizations, deaths, and the percentage change from the previous 7-day period. It also includes data on testing and vaccination rates.

Visit the CDC County View page for Cobb County by following this link

The Georgia Department of Public Health publishes a daily status report on the pandemic every afternoon at around 3 p.m. It’s a comprehensive report with extensive data and charts arranged statewide and by county, that also includes age breakdowns, racial demographics, and data on vaccination and testing.

It isn’t the easiest system to navigate, but it’s worth spending time learning how to use if you’re interested in getting the latest statewide and local data on the state of COVID-19.

Visit the Georgia Department of Public Health Daily Status Report by following this link

To get an overview of how much the pandemic is stressing the hospital systems in terms of ER visits, hospital bed capacity, and ventilator use, there is a Hospital Bed and Ventilator Use report with interactive maps. The map is organized by hospital region, and Cobb County is part of Region N.

Visit the Georgia Hospital Beds and Ventilator Report by following this link

To get data on what percentage of patients in Georgia hospitals were admitted for COVID-19 versus all other causes, there is a Georgia Medical Facility Patient Census. It also reports numbers by statewide and hospital region.

Visit the Georgia Medical Facility Patient Census by following this link