Georgia Department of Public Health dropping daily COVID-19 updates, will only do weekly reports

The weekly reports will be released every Wednesday from now on.

“We believe weekly COVID reporting will continue to support a sustainable response in Georgia while informing decision-making around transmission and infection rates,” Georgia Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Kathleen E. Toomey said. “DPH epidemiologists and the data team have worked tirelessly for more than two years to provide this information to the public. We are extremely grateful for their work and dedication.”

The shift to weekly reports comes as new case numbers fell this spring to numbers not seen since last summer, before the Delta and Omicron variants drove new surges in the late summer and at the end of 2021.

There was a jump in numbers earlier this month, but state health officials said those were actually cases identified in the late winter but not reported until months later because of a backlog at the lab where the results were processed. After that spike, however, the daily numbers returned to where they had been in March.

DPH officials are pointing to a rising number of at-home tests whose results are not being reported to the state and said “there is now a greater focus on other indicators such as hospital admissions, hospital occupancy, and overall vaccination rates when assessing the community impact of COVID-19.”

With the change to weekly reports, DPH will also stop reporting the PCR/Molecular Reported Today, Total Antigen and Total Antibody (Serology) data.

Health officials explained this is because new CDC guidance states that only positive and negative PCR, and positive antigen, test results. The CDC no longer requires facilities report negative results for antigen or rapid tests, or positive or negative antibody test results.

As of Thursday, Georgia’s two-week case rate was 51 cases for every 100,000 residents of the state with hotspots in Chattahoochee and Stewart counties. The state’s seven-day average was 400.4 cases per day as of Thursday.

Since the pandemic reached Georgia in March 2020, the state has seen a total of: 1.94 million COVID cases; 31,390 confirmed deaths; 6,086 probable deaths; 111,360 hospitalizations; and 15,852 ICU admissions.

DPH reported that 64% of Georgians have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 56% of the state’s residents are fully vaccinated.

Gwinnett County’s two-week case rate was 41 cases for every 100,000 residents, with a total of 401 new cases reported during that time. The county’s seven-day case average was 29 cases per day.

The county has seen a total of 175,491 cases, 1,747 confirmed deaths, 114 probable deaths and 7,531 hospitalizations during the course of the pandemic.

The state’s vaccination dashboard shows 64% of Gwinnettians have received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine while 59% of the county’s residents are fully vaccinated.