State crosses mark, 20,000 killed by COVID-19
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The Georgia Department of Public Health reported the grim news this week that the state had surpassed the mark of 20,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths Friday.
In a press release, Kathleen Toomey, the state Public Health Commissioner said, “It is tragic but not surprising that we have surpassed this grim milestone of 20,000 COVID deaths in our state. Ninety-seven percent of COVID deaths since we’ve had vaccines are in unvaccinated individuals. These deaths are preventable.”
During the first three days of September, the state saw 100 deaths. Georgia’s highest average daily death toll was in mid-January, when the state averaged about 115 deaths per day.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, just 42.1% of the state is fully vaccinated, which lags the national average of 52.9% fully vaccinated. Georgia DPH is again pleading with residents to get vaccinated.
The Cobb County School District COVID news showed a little improvement, but continues to be daunting. It reflected 947 new cases among students and staff over the past week, which is slightly less than the week before when 1,033 new cases were reported. The Cobb County School District total number of cases is now 3,744.
Sope Creek has the highest number of active cases among elementary schools with 19 active cases. Of the district’s 67 elementary schools, there are 16 with 10 or more cases.
Lindley Middle School, in Mableton, has 25 active cases with McCleskey Middle School with 22.
Four of the 16 high schools have more than 20 active cases including Allatoona (27), McEachern (27), Sprayberry (26), and Walton (21).
As of Friday, Wellstar Health System, based in Marietta, had 737 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, 92% of them unvaccinated. The system had 162 COVID-19 patients in Intensive Care Units, 94% of them unvaccinated, and 123 COVID-19 patients on a ventilator, 95% of them unvaccinated.
For a full Cobb County Schools report, visit https://www.cobbk12.org/page/40801/covid-case-notification.
For a full Marietta City Schools report, visit https://www.marietta-city.org/casereports
For the Georgia DPH’s full report, visit dph.georgia.gov/covid-19-daily-status-report.
National data can be found at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website at cdc.gov.