Peach, four other Middle Georgia counties report high COVID-19 rates
The Georgia Department of Public Health released updated COVID-19 case, laboratory testing and emergency department visitation data Monday, noting which counties have reported high transmission rates or are susceptible to significant spread.
According to the County Indicator Report, Bibb County has reported more than 6,400 cumulative coronavirus cases, including 164 between Oct. 10-Oct 16 and 134 between Oct. 17-Oct. 23. The county’s 14-day case rate per 100,000 people is 195, compared to Houston County at 177 and Peach County at 242. Bibb County is down from 197 in last week’s report for the 14-day case rate per 100,000 people. Dodge County is listed as the highest in the state with a rate of 647.
The report listed Houston County as an “emerging county,” which means the county has reported a greater than 5% increase in COVID-19 cases from the previous seven-day reporting period.
Over the past two weeks, Bibb county’s positivity rate for PCR COVID-19 tests was 8%: having a rate below 10% indicates a sufficient number of people are being tested. Last week, the percentage of emergency department visits in Bibb County ERs related to COVID-19 went down to 1%.
In Middle Georgia, Twiggs County and Peach County have indications of high coronavirus transmission, according to the health department. Twiggs and Dodge are both in the top 15 counties for worst test positivity rate over the last 14 days (Oct. 10-Oct. 23) in the state at over 14% each.
Middle Georgia Cases
The Georgia Department of Public Health reported 19,265 cumulative COVID-19 cases in Middle Georgia in its 3 p.m. update Monday..
Here are key takeaways:
Cases: 19,868. Bibb County has recorded the most cumulative positive cases with 6,594.
Deaths: 655. It’s important to note that these numbers indicate when deaths are reported to the Georgia Department of Public Health. It does not reflect when these deaths occurred.
Hospitalizations: In Region F, which includes Bibb County and much of Middle Georgia, 73.07% of hospital beds were in use, 76.82% of ICU beds were in use and 26.67% of adult ventilators were in use.
Cases per person: Baldwin County has the most cases per 100,000 with 5,190. Bibb is next with 4,333 cases per 100,000 people. Crawford has one of the lowest rates in the state, with 1,594 per 100,000.
County Indicator Report: Bleckley, Dodge, Twiggs, Pulaski and Peach counties are currently listed as high transmission counties. Houston, Dodge, Pulaski and Monroe counties are listed as emerging counties. An emerging county has seen a greater than 5% increase in COVID cases from the previous seven day period. A high transmission county has a 14-day cases rate of more than 100 cases for 100,000 county residents and an average of more than 10% in positive tests results during that 14 day period. No other counties in Middle Georgia meet these criteria, according to the report.
The following is a breakdown of cumulative cases and deaths for counties in Middle Georgia.
- Bibb 6,594 cases - 194 deaths
- Houston 3,588 - 94
- Baldwin 2,306 - 64
- Laurens 1,975 - 86
Peach 769- 26
Washington 760 - 13
- Monroe 754 - 53
Jones 642 - 16
Dodge 605- 16
- Bleckley 513- 27
- Wilkinson 368 - 17
- Pulaski 335 - 23
- Macon 248 - 10
- Twiggs 216 - 10
- Crawford 195 - 6
DPH reported 975 new cases across the state and 18 new deaths Monday.