Eight Middle GA counties are at high risk for COVID-19 spread, health department says

The Georgia Department of Public Health released updated COVID-19 case, laboratory testing and emergency department visitation data, 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 6,900 cumulative coronavirus cases, including an average of 194 between Nov. 14-20 and 157 between Nov. 21-27. The county’s 14-day case rate per 100,000 people is 229, compared to Houston County at 213 and Peach County at 293. Bibb County is up from 212 in last week’s report for the 14-day case rate per 100,000 people.

Over the past two weeks, the county’s positivity rate for PCR COVID-19 tests was 9.7%: having a rate below 10% indicates a sufficient number of people are being tested. The percentage of emergency department visits in Bibb County ERs related to COVID-19 remains at 2%.

The report listed Peach 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.

In Middle Georgia, Monroe, Crawford, Macon, Pulaski, Twiggs, Hancock, Washington and Peach counties have indications of high coronavirus transmission, according to the health department. 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.

Middle Georgia Cases

The Georgia Department of Public Health reported 23,108 cumulative COVID-19 cases in Middle Georgia in its 3 p.m. update Wednesday.

Here are key takeaways:

Cases: 23,108. Bibb County has recorded the most cumulative positive cases with 7,462

Deaths: 772. 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, 78.76% of hospital beds were in use, 80.73% of ICU beds were in use and 36.44% of adult ventilators were in use.

Cases per person: Baldwin County has the most cases per 100,000 with 5,712. Bibb is next with 4,904 cases per 100,000 people. Crawford has one of the lowest rates in the state, with 1,905 per 100,000.

County Indicator Report: Peach, Macon, Laurens, Washington, Jasper and Putnam counties are listed as an emerging county. An emerging county has seen a greater than 5% increase in COVID cases from the previous seven day period.

The following is a breakdown of cumulative cases and deaths for counties in Middle Georgia.

• Bibb 7,462 cases - 219 deaths
  
  
• Houston 4,375 - 104
  
  
• Baldwin 2,538- 69
  
  
• Laurens 2,246- 108
  
  

• Washington 993 - 20

• Peach 957 - 28

• Monroe 923 - 59
  
  

• Jones 764 - 20

• Dodge 717 - 38

• Bleckley 551 - 30
  
  
• Wilkinson 416 - 18
  
  
• Pulaski 383 - 24
  
  
• Macon 297 - 15
  
  
• Twiggs 253 - 14
  
  
• Crawford 233 - 6
  
  

DPH reported 4,094 new cases across the state and 35 new deaths Wednesday.

This story was originally published December 1, 2020 at 3:52 PM.