After a steady drop, last Friday’s COVID School Aged Surveillance Report showed an increase in cases in Cobb County for the three populations the report tracks: preschool (0-4 years of age) public school aged (5-17 years old) and undergraduate college age for traditional students (18-24 years old).

The public school aged group of 5 to 17 years of age changed transmission categories from “moderate” to “moderately high,” and the college-aged population moved from “moderately high” to “high.”

The change in case rate for that group was from 45 cases per 100,000 of population in the March 17 report to 54 cases per 100,000 in the March 24 report.

The preschool age group increased in case rate, remaining in the “moderately high” category.

The categories of community transmission are consistent between Cobb County and the statewide data, but while Cobb shows the numbers as increasing over the past two weeks, the statewide numbers have been steady or declining.

Cobb County and Statewide data

Cobb County
Age category	All cases to date	14-day case count	14-day case rate per 100,000 residents	14-day rate category
0-4	4933	37	79	Moderately High	Increasing
5-17	24198	71	54	Moderately High	Increasing
18-22	15496	57	121	High	Increasing
Georgia statewide
Age category	All cases to date	14-day case count	14-day case rate per 100,000 residents	14-day rate category
0-4	74150	580	88	Moderately High	Less than 5% change
5-17	351861	1725	93	Moderately High	Decreasing
18-22	217819	825	113	High	Decreasing

About the GDPH School Aged COVID-19 Data Report

The documentation for the School Aged COVID-19 Data Report describes the use of the data as follows:

The data in this report can be used to assess the extent of COVID-19 transmission among preschool/daycare aged children (0-4 years), K-12 school aged children (5-17 years), and college/professional school aged adults (18-22 years) in Georgia. Click on the above tabs to see statewide and county level COVID-19 data. This report is updated weekly. Please consult additional resources to understand trends and other factors affecting your county.

For a complete list of the reports with links, follow this link.

For more information 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