The Georgia Department of Public Health says there has been a slight increase in the number of positive tests for coronavirus in Athens. There have been 68 confirmed cases over the past two weeks, bringing the total since the pandemic began to just under 13 thousand. DPH says the Clarke County vaccination rate mirrors that of the state, with 39 percent of Athens residents now considered fully vaccinated against coronavirus.
There have been 142 deaths attributed to COVID 19 since the pandemic reached Athens in March of last year, with slightly more than 500 hospitalizations. Only 13 people have been hospitalized with coronavirus over the past week in Athens.
From WSB TV...
That number had been declining for months but it’s been slowly going up since late last month.
As of Tuesday night in Georgia, 669 people are in hospitals battling the disease.
“I do worry that we probably will expect some impacts in the Atlanta metro,” said Dr. Amber Schmidtke with the University of St. Mary in Kansas. “We’re already seeing patient census for COVID-19 increase in hospital region D which is the Atlanta metro.”
Case are up 23% in Georgia according to the latest White House COVID-19 Task Force report. Deaths are down 44%.
However, Dr. Patrick O’Carroll with the Atlanta-based Task Force for Global Health worries about the more transmissible Delta variant amidst a rise in patients.
“The people who haven’t been vaccinated are is as much in danger now because of the Delta variant than they were 12 months ago,” Dr. O’Carroll said.