Cobb citizens wanting to get tested for COVID-19 for free have a larger window to do that.
Cobb and Douglas Public Health has increased the hours to get a free test at Jim Miller Park. Anyone can go to Jim Miller Park (2245 Callaway Road) between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Monday-Friday or 7 a.m. to noon on Saturday.
Cobb and Douglas Public Health has been offering pop-up testing at several other locations in the county, including both campuses of Kennesaw State University.
Testing will take place from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday at the main campus in Kennesaw in the old BrandsMart parking lot 93305 Busbee Drive, NW, Kennesaw).
On Friday and Saturday, testing will be done at KSU’s Marietta campus (643 Clair Harris Road), also from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
You’re asked to pre-register first, and you can do that and get more information by clicking here.
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Gov. Brian Kemp has pushed for voluntary mask compliance, but has been reluctant to issue a statewide mandate.
After unsuccessfully suing the City of Atlanta over its mask mandate, Gov. Brian Kemp on Saturday signed a new executive order that permits local governments to issue mask mandates.
It falls short of a statewide mandate that a White House COVID-19 Task Force has recommended, although Kemp has embarked on a statewide tour encouraging Georgians to wear masks in public.
His order on Saturday (you can read it here), which expires on Aug. 31, extends one first issued in March, and that until now had forbidden local governments from superseding statewide provisions.
The order continues to issue a shelter-in-place for medically fragile people, limits large gatherings and mandates continuing safety guidelines for restaurants, salons and other businesses.
The Georgia Department of Public Health on Saturday reported 3,372 new cases and 96 deaths, for an overall total of 235,168 and 4,669. Cobb’s case total rose by 186 on Saturday to 14,826. The death toll rose by four, to 338, the second-highest number in Georgia behind 472 in Fulton County.
After dropping his lawsuit against Atlanta and ending mediation with the city earlier this week, Kemp indicated he would address the mask mandate issue in a new order.
A local government can now issue a mask mandate for anyone using public property in that jurisdiction, such as a courthouse, library, tag office or other facility.
However, that mandate can be expanded to the larger community if a county has averaged more than 100 COVID-19 confirmed cases per 100,000 people for the previous 14 days.
That includes most counties in Georgia, including Cobb. Georgia DPH figures on Saturday indicated that Cobb has been averaging 394.4 cases per 100,000 people over the last two weeks.
According to Kemp’s new order, those mandates can be imposed on private property only if an owner agrees. Violations of any local mandates are punishable by a maximum fine of $50 after a warning. Kemp said in a statement:
“This order protects Georgia businesses from government overreach by restricting the application and enforcement of local masking requirements to public property. While I support local control, it must be properly balanced with property rights and personal freedoms.”
Several dozen local governments in Georgia have defied Kemp’s previous order with mask mandates.
Cobb County is among the jurdisdications that has not issued a mandate. After Atlanta’s mandate was issued by Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms in July, Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce said he would not do so, citing Kemp’s order.
He said at the time that “while such a mandate looks great on paper, it puts an unsustainable burden on public safety personnel. They would be the ones responsible for enforcing this behavior on more than 760,000 people in the County. This expectation is unreasonable.”
While visitors and staff to county facilities must wear face coverings, Boyce said he was making a “nice ask” for citizens to wear masks elsewhere. Since then, county government has embarked on a “Mask Up Cobb” campaign with social media messages and billboards.
Many local businesses in East Cobb have had mask mandates since they reopened, especially personal care salons and small retail stores. Large retailers and supermarkets also have required customers to wear face coverings for the last few weeks.
The AJC reported this week that the White House COVID-19 Task Force warned that Georgia is in a “red zone” for expanding spread of the virus and urged a statewide mask mandate, saying current mitigation efforts have not been working.
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For a larger view and to hover over map areas and get further details, click here. Source: Cobb GIS.
Following up last week’s post on the growth of COVID-19 cases in Cobb County, there are some updated figures now posted breaking down how that looks by ZIP Codes for the month of July.
In East Cobb, the surge in positive cases matches what’s been happening in the county, with 60.6 percent of all cases in our five ZIP Codes being reported in July.
At the start of last month, there were 912 cases in all. In July, 1,404 cases were reported, for a total of 2,316. That’s per the latest figures compiled by the Cobb County GIS unit, which updated the map seen above and that you can hover over here.
The figures indicated below are cases reported on July 1 and at the end of the month, with the number deaths in parenthesis:
30067: 287 to 689 (10)
30062: 252 to 672 (12)
30066: 217 to 551 (11)
30068: 140 to 360 (19)
30075: 24 to 44 (0)
To view a hover map and details of day-by-day case totals for each ZIP Code, click here. Source: Cobb GIS
Included in those hover maps are details tracking the progression of COVID-19 cases day-by-day; keep in mind those cases are tallied by the date they are reported, and not the day a test is taken.
The blue icons in that map represent public school locations.
As we noted in a post last week, the Georgia Department of Public Health is now reporting date of case and date of death figures, statewide and by county, in its Daily Status Report that is updated at 3 p.m. daily.
The “date of onset” case figures for Cobb peaked in July in the first half of the month, both by date and by a 7-day moving average. Those figures were a downward trend by the end of the month and as August began.
Cobb GIS also has updated that map, which shows the location of long-term care homes. Of the 52 deaths in East Cobb ZIP Codes, 25 have been in those homes
Testing has gone up dramatically in Cobb County and Georgia. In July, there were more than 700,000 COVID-19 tests in the state, with the positive case numbers jumping from 104,423 to 194,804.
Cobb testing data has been limited; at the end of July Cobb and Douglas Public Health reported that it had conducted 27,650 tests at Jim Miller Park.
But that doesn’t include those tested at private labs and doctor’s offices, and there is no testing data available by ZIP Code.
Cobb DPH also is no longer tracking “test positivity” rates, meaning the number of people who test positive out of those getting tested. As of late July, that figure had hovered around seven percent, with 5 percent being considered an acceptable rate.
Across the state, positivity rates surged to nearly 15 percent at times during July, and are now around 10 percent.
Those figures reflect the level of “community spread” that has caused concern as schools prepare to return, and that prompted the Cobb County School District, among many in metro Atlanta, to start the school year online-only.
Cobb and Georgia public health agencies began tracking COVID-19 data in mid-March, from the time Gov. Brian Kemp declared a public health emergency that he has extended several times, including last week.
UPDATED:
As of 3 p.m. Tuesday, there were 12,135 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Cobb County, and 304 deaths. A total of 2,855 of those cases have come in the last two weeks.
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His latest extension expired at midnight Saturday, and Kemp has now extended that until 11:59 p.m. Sept. 10.
Kemp also extended another executive order that restricts public gatherings of more than 50 people without social distancing measures (at least six feet between persons), outlines mandatory criteria for businesses and requires the medically fragile to shelter-in-place.
That order continues through Aug. 15.
“As our state ramps up testing, expands hospital surge capacity, and provides staffing, supplies, and resources to cities and counties throughout Georgia, we urge local officials to enforce the rules and restrictions detailed in these orders,” Kemp said in a statement.
Kemp’s extended orders come at the end of a month with around half of all of Georgia’s confirmed COVID-19 cases having occurred and with growing concerns about hospitalizations due to the virus.
On Friday another 4,149 cases were reported by the Georgia Department of Public Health, for 186,236 in all. At the end of June, there were 104,423 cases in Georgia.
In Cobb County, there were 6,329 cases in July, 56 percent of all of the county’s cases since tracking began in February. The county’s current total is 11,206, up from 4,877 on June 30.
Another 286 cases were reported in Cobb on Friday, the fourth day in a row in which at least 200 cases were reported.
Cobb’s death total stands at 297, which is unchanged from Tuesday.
UPDATED, Saturday, 4:30 p.m.:
Georgia’s COVID case on Saturday afternoon was 190,012, up by 3,709 from Friday, and 3,825 deaths. Another 308 new hospitalizations also were reported.
Cobb’s case total is up to 11,436, up 236 from Friday, with a new death reported, bringing that total to 298.
A total of 2,851 new cases have been reported in Cobb the last two weeks.
ORIGINAL REPORT CONTINUES:
But critical-care hospital beds in the Cobb area are in short supply. According to the latest COVID Situation Report issued by the Georgia Emergency Management Agency (read it here), only 14 critical-care bends are remaining, out of 226, for the region that includes Cobb, Douglas, Paulding and Cherokee counties.
Hospitalizations also have grown during July, and GEMA reports that there are 3,155 people currently admitted for COVID-19 across the state; but those don’t include figures for Cobb, and Wellstar Kennestone Hospital.
Kemp has announced that a surge hospital will be opened at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta on Monday. It will start with a capacity of 60 and could hold up to 120 patients.
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The rate of COVID-19 deaths by date in Cobb, as well as the 7-day moving average, is shown in a Georgia Department of Public Health graphic. For more click here.
Four more COVID-19 deaths were reported Tuesday in Cobb County, raising the state’s second-highest fatality total close to 300.
On Monday, Cobb’s COVID case totals surpassed 10,000.
Those figures come from the Georgia Department of Public Health, which unveiled some new data options Tuesday on its daily status report, which you can find here.
Viewers can search cases and deaths according to the date they occurred, or “date of onset,” as well as by the date in which they are reported to Georgia DPH, including down to the county level.
Tuesday’s date of onset data was incomplete when the daily status report was updated at 3 p.m.
Cobb now has 292 COVID deaths, trailing only Fulton County, which has 373 deaths.
Cobb’s four new fatalities were among 54 new deaths reported across the state Tuesday. Cobb also reported 213 new COVID confirmed cases, and now has a cumulative total of 10,453. That’s fourth in Georgia behind Fulton, Gwinnett and DeKalb.
A new data feature tracks the growth of cases per county over the last two weeks. Cobb has reported 2,807 new cases in that time by date of report, about a quarter of its overall total.
Georgia’s new COVID case count is 175,052, a jump of 4,293 from Monday. Another 406 new hospitalizations also were included in Tuesday’s statewide figures, including 32 in Cobb County.
In Georgia a total of 1.48 million people have been given viral tests for COVID, with a test positivity rate of 10.8 percent. That does not include antibody tests.
COVID-19 cases by date in Cobb show a preliminary fall in the current 14-day window. Source: Georgia Department of Public Health. For more click here.
Georgia DPH points out that figures shown over the last two weeks, from the “14 Day Window” line, are preliminary. That means that additional deaths and cases that take place during that period will be updated when reported by county health agencies, hospitals and care homes.
The 54 deaths added Tuesday were reported in last 24-hour period, not by the date of death.
In East Cobb, the latest totals from Cobb and Douglas Public Health show 2,188 cases and 11 deaths as of Monday, up from our last ZIP Code breakdown update last Thursday (July 23), when those numbers were 1,904 cases and 50 deaths:
30067: 655 cases (570), 10 deaths (10)
30062: 625 cases (553), 12 deaths (12)
30066: 516 cases (447), 11 deaths (11)
30068: 349 cases (300), 19 deaths (17)
30075: 43 cases (34), 0 deaths (0)
Here’s the latest briefing from Dr. Janet Memark, director of Cobb and Douglas Public Health:
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To view the ZIP Code hover map, click here. Source: Cobb and Douglas Public Health.
The number of people in East Cobb ZIP Codes who’ve died from the COVID-19 virus has reached 50, as the total of positive cases approaches 2,000.
The latest figures from Cobb and Georgia public health agencies show a slower increase in those figures in East Cobb than other parts of the county and the state.
Cobb and Douglas Public Health has been compiling confirmed case and death totals by ZIP Code, and here’s the latest for those in East Cobb, which has 1,904 confirmed cases as of Thursday:
30067: 570 cases, 10 deaths
30062: 553 cases, 12 deaths
30066: 447 cases, 11 deaths
30068: 300 cases, 17 deaths
30075: 34 cases, 0 deaths
Of those 50 deaths in East Cobb, 23 took place in long-term care homes, according to mapping data provided by the Cobb County government GIS unit, which also tracks ZIP Code data.
The spike in Georgia and Cobb cases is occurring the most in younger population brackets—the 20-29 age group in Cobb has the most positive cases, 2,910 in all, out of 9,218 total cases countywide.
Those trends are similar across the state.
Cobb reported a single-day high of 414 new cases on Thursday.
Testing continues to ramp up in Cobb County and around the state. Cobb and Douglas Public Health reports that it has administered 22,866 COVID tests at Jim Miller Park, and that 7.12 percent of those tests have been positive.
That’s lower than a few weeks ago, when the test positivity rate reached around 13 percent for a while; before the spike, that figure was around 5 percent.
The data doesn’t indicate how many positive tests may be for people who are asymptomatic.
Cobb’s case count is fourth-highest in Georgia, trailing Fulton, Gwinnett and DeKalb counties. Cobb’s death count is 274, the second-highest in the state behind Fulton’s 356.
The ZIP Code data doesn’t include the age of death. Across Cobb, 216 of Cobb’s deaths have been people ages 70 and older (87 from ages 70-79, 83 from ages 80-89, and 46 who were age 90 and older), according to Cobb GIS figures (click here to click through the county’s COVID resource hub).
A total of 58 people between ages 18-69 have died; no fatalities have been reported under the age of 18.
The racial breakdowns for fatalities in Cobb are 157 whites, 94 blacks, and 23 others. More women than men have died (139 to 133), and of those who have died, at least 223 have had other underlying health issues. Another 20 did not, and 31 were unknown.
Some additional ZIP Code data regarding the race and gender of confirmed COVID cases is being compiled by the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, and you can find a hover map by clicking here.
Another data tracker, Amber Schmidtke of Atlanta, is a public health educator who tracks state and national COVID numbers and analyzes them in a daily e-mail newsletter.
As of 3 p.m. Thursday, there were 156,588 COVID cases in Georgia, an increase of 4,286 from Wednesday, and 3,369 deaths, 25 more than Wednesday. The deaths indicated by the Georgia Department of Public Health are by the day they are reported, not the date of death.
An independent tracking site, covid-georgia.com, has additional information about cases by county and notes trends in cases, deaths, hospitalizations and testing. There are also fatality breakdowns by date of death and the dates deaths are reported.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
A Cobb GIS Map of COVID-19 deaths by ZIP code, with icons showing the locations of long-term care homes. For more details click here.
Since we began breaking down COVID-19 cases, deaths and other data in Cobb County and specifically East Cobb, we’ve been getting queries from readers imploring us to dig further into the numbers.
Some think the seriousness of the virus is overstated considering the high number of people who test negative and the very high percentage of those who recover.
They worry that a slide back into lockdowns would not only devastate the local economy, but some wonder if there isn’t an intent to close things down until after the November elections.
Others think we’re not doing enough to illustrate the spread of a virus that’s killed and sickened far too many people, and that we should hunker down until the case numbers decline, or a vaccine is developed.
Most just want to know how to better understand numbers that are floating around in incredible quantities, and from an increasing variety of sources.
The biggest problem is the limited range of the data that is community-specific, and especially pertaining to East Cobb.
On Friday a total of 339 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Cobb County, a weekday single-day high since the Georgia Department of Public Health began issuing daily updates in March.
(A total of 556 new cases were reported in Cobb on Monday, July 6, reflecting a lag due to the Independence Day holiday weekend.)
As of Friday in Cobb County, there were 6,708 confirmed cases of COVID-19, fourth-highest in Georgia, and 250 deaths, second only to Fulton County.
On Saturday, Cobb’s case count rose by 232, to 6,950 cases, and three more deaths were added, for 253 overall.
Those are staggering numbers, and some readers have been asking us what exactly do they mean? It’s easy to see graphs and charts showing big jumps in cases alone and get very jittery. How concerned should we be?
What’s the larger context we should be thinking about? Who’s getting the most sick and dying the most, and who’s experiencing only mild symptoms or none at all?
Cobb and Douglas Public Health figures showing higher case rates for younger age groups. For more local data click here.
This more recent crest of cases—which is disproportionately affecting younger age groups—is not bringing with it the death rates we saw in the spring, when many elderly and at-risk people were the primary casualties.
The Cobb and Douglas Public Health website, like the state’s, has a lot of valuable information, but quite often it’s hard to parse data that readers say they want us to examine.
CDPH breaks down cases by age group, but not deaths. It also tracks the test positivity rate (how many people test positive against all those it tests), which is at 6.76 percent in Cobb, up from around five percent just a few weeks ago.
Those are figures noted by Dr. Janet Memark, director of Cobb and Douglas Public Health, who issued a public health alert last week as a result.
CDPH has tested 18,571 people in Cobb County. If you factor in those 253 deaths, that’s 1.36 percent of people in Cobb who’ve been tested for the virus—at least by our public health agency—who’ve died.
If you measure deaths against what as of Saturday is now 6,940 positive cases (what’s called a case fatality rate), that figure is 3.6 percent.
Cobb government’s Geographic Information Systems department also has been tracking COVID numbers, focusing mostly on data stemming from case and death counts.
How many of those who are testing positive these days are seriously ill? Beyond hospitalization numbers, which have been going up in Cobb and elsewhere in Georgia but are still considered manageable, that’s unclear.
How many people have mild or no symptoms at all also isn’t known. Since anyone is being encouraged to get tested, it would be helpful to know how many asymptomatic cases there are. But that’s data that isn’t readily available.
In East Cobb, we’ve had 1,271 confirmed cases of the virus, and 44 deaths. That’s up from 1,034 and 41 a week ago. But that’s about all that we know, for now.
As we noted in that last report, 16 of those deaths were in ZIP Code 30068, in East Cobb, which has a number of long-term care homes.
While that information has been helpful, it’s become public only in recent weeks. There’s nothing more in the ZIP Code data to indicate the infection rate (those who test positive against those tested) and the case fatality rate.
We don’t even know the age, gender or racial breakdowns by ZIP Code, or how many of those cases involved people with other underlying health issues.
This is information that might calm the fears of many citizens, fears that have been skyrocketing in recent weeks.
Right before Friday’s numbers came out, Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce said he wouldn’t issue a mask mandate, as some mayors have done in Georgia, because he thinks it’s unenforceable.
After Friday’s numbers were reported, the Cobb County School District issued revised reopening plans that do not require staff or students to wear masks.
That’s set off a firestorm of emotion and anxiety that figures to get even more heated before classes start next month.
How masks became such a fraught issue is a topic for another column, but it does show the continuing uncertainty, not just over data, but how to interpret it and how to develop strategies to combat the virus.
We are drowning in data without having a better understanding of it. Other data that might better explain how many people seriously become sick, or not, is harder to come by.
Yet politicians and public health officials keep peddling the same pedestrian messages they have since March—wash your hands, practice social distancing, and wear a mask in public.
Gee, thanks Mom.
After four months, this is all they can still say? This isn’t reassuring the public any more than continuing to extend emergency orders, as the governor and judges have done, at least until August, and possibly into the fall.
How much longer will business owners, employees, students and parents, religious worshippers, sports fans and everyday citizens be told to continue placing their lives and well-being on indefinite hold?
How much longer will there be public demands to mask up, and lock down, healthy people? Especially school children, who are in an age group with the fewest virus cases of all? Is this even a good thing for our society to expect?
The numbers are all over the place, begging to be better organized, and so are the reactions to a crisis that seems to have no end.
Cobb County appears to be in good shape, based on data that goes beyond raw case and death counts.
However, those are the metrics that dominate government response, media coverage and good bit of public opinion.
They’re also feeding a social contagion that’s sweeping through our country faster than COVID-19, and that might be the most difficult outbreak of all to contain.
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After several employees of various Cobb courts tested positive for COVID-19, Cobb Superior Court Chief Judge Reuben Green has issued new orders regarding court operations.
In an order issued on Friday, Green said that four Cobb Superior Court employees, two in Juvenile Court Court, and one each in State Court, Probate Court and Magistrate Court have tested positive for the virus.
Green said there’s no information that any of them were exposed at work, but they are required to undergo 14 days of quarantine.
Infected employees must test negative before they are allowed to return to work, and contact tracing has taken place to inform those who may have been exposed to someone who’s tested positive for the virus.
In addition, Green said the work areas where those employees work are being deep cleaned, and that the Superior Courthouse is being disinfected this weekend.
In his order (you can read it here) Green said Probate Court and Superior Court operations “will shift back to a general presumption that all cases should be handled virtually via videoconference.”
Anyone who thinks a case needs to be heard in person, Green said, should contact the assigned judge’s chambers.
All persons entering Cobb courthouse buildings are required to undergo temperature checks and must wear masks, and social distancing guidelines are in effect.
Earlier this week a state judicial emergency that was to have expired on Sunday was extended for another month, to Aug. 11. Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Harold Melton’s order continues a prohibition on jury trial proceedings and most grand jury proceedings and issues guidelines for in-person and remote proceedings that are taking place.
Friday’s extension was the fourth since COVID-19 closures began, and the new deadline coincides with a continuing state public health emergency that was extended last month by Gov. Brian Kemp.
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To view the Cobb ZIP Code hover map, click here. Source: Cobb and Douglas Public Health.
For the fourth day in a row, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Cobb County rose by 200 or more, reflecting a continuing surge in positive tests in Georgia.
In East Cobb, the overall figure has gone over 1,000.
That’s an increase of 877 cases since Monday, easily eclipsing a previous weekly high of 685 last week in only five days.
Five more deaths were reported in Cobb during that time, with the 245 cumulative total the second-highest in the state,
Across Georgia, there were 2,784 new cases on Friday, bringing the total number of cases to 90,493. A total of 2,856 deaths have been reported in Georgia, a jump of seven from Thursday.
The new cases in East Cobb rose from 849 last week, with one new reported death, in ZIP Code 30066, bringing the community total to 41.
Cobb and Douglas Public Health has been compiling confirmed case and death totals by ZIP Code, and here’s the latest for those in East Cobb, which has 1,034 as of Thursday:
30067: 317 cases, 8 deaths
30062: 297 cases, 12 deaths
30066: 241 cases, 9 deaths
30068: 155 cases, 16 deaths
30075: 24 cases, 0 deaths
The Cobb COVID count at the start of the week was 4,630. But 247 more cases were reported Tuesday and 204 on Wednesday, when Dr. Janet Memark, director of Cobb and Douglas Public Health, issued a public health alert.
The Cobb case total jumped by 220 on Thursday and 206 on Friday.
He also embarked on a tour of Georgia to urge mask-wearing, warning that the college football season could be in jeopardy if the case numbers keep rising.
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The original Moxie Burger restaurant at Paper Mill Village.
The two East Cobb locations of Moxie Burger and the Moxie Taco restaurant have closed temporarily after an employee tested positive for COVID-19.
The East Cobb-based Moxie Restaurant Group alerted customers on its Facebook pages Friday morning that the three restaurants will undergo a full disinfecting process from a professional sanitation provider and that all employees will required to be tested.
The Moxie Burger locations at Paper Mill Village and 2421 Shallowford Road are closed, as is Moxie Taco, also at Paper Mill Village.
“Previous to this, Moxie Taco and all Moxie Burger locations have been relentless with their disinfecting efforts and social distancing. The safety of our customers is just as important to us as is the safety of our staff and we are doing everything in our power to take our sanitation and safety measures above and beyond,” the message states.
“We do not take this announcement lightly and fully understand the concerns you might have. We remain steadfast in our commitment to keep our staff, guests, and community safe and are here to address any concerns and questions that you have.”
The Moxie Burger location in Roswell remains open, as “we are confident our team at Moxie Burger Roswell was not in direct contact.”
That restaurant is open Friday and Sunday and will be closed on Saturday for the July 4 holiday.
The Moxie restaurants re-opened their dining rooms service on June 1 after being closed, and then open for takeout, in the wake of the COVID virus.
The number of positive COVID cases has risen dramatically in Georgia and in Cobb County, where a public health alert was issued on Wednesday.
Cobb and Douglas Public Health said it is investigating 300 businesses in both counties for outbreaks (when two or more individuals that are positive in the same place) but they have not been identified.
UPDATED, 1:23 P.M.: The Freakin’ Incan restaurant at Sandy Plains Village has announced that due to rising COVID cases, it’s closing its dining room and is staying open for takeout service.
“We are discussing with the landlord about adding outside tables and chairs and could possibly have them available by the end of next week. Please bear with us while we try to protect the health of our staff and our customers. We feel that limiting our exposure and preventing possible sickness to be the correct decision at the moment. This is a preventative measure to avoid getting sick and forcing a complete shutdown. All staff are in good health, I repeat, all staff are in good health! I would like to take this chance to wish all of you a safe and healthy Fourth of July!”
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Dr. Janet Memark, director of Cobb and Douglas Public Health
The director of Cobb and Douglas Public Health issued a public health alert Wednesday as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to climb substantially, and with more people being hospitalized due to the virus.
Dr. Janet Memark said in the alert that there is “evidence of increased transmission throughout our community, outside of additional testing access, as supported by positivity rates at our testing sites that have surpassed 10%. This trend has been on an upward trajectory over the last few weeks. Last week, we saw the highest number of reported cases in our district since the pandemic began.”
The age groups of those testing positive in recent weeks also has been trending younger, especially between the ages of 20 and 40, she said.
Memark said that while the numbers of COVID-19-related 911 calls, emergency room visits, hospitalizations and need for intensive-care beds has increased in recent weeks, the death rate “appears to be in decline.”
She said that’s likely the result of younger, healthier people testing positive and recovering, and due to healthcare system response to treating the virus.
Memark said more than 300 businesses in Cobb and Douglas counties have been affected by COVID and staff epidemiologists are investigating 75 outbreaks.
An “outbreak” is classified as when two or more individuals that are positive in the same place. In a nursing home, one individual is considered to be an outbreak.
Valerie Crow, a spokeswoman for Cobb and Douglas Public Health, said she could not release any information about businesses experiencing outbreaks due to federal health privacy laws.
There were 5,081 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Cobb County on Wednesday, 204 more case than the 4,877 reported on Tuesday by the Georgia Department of Public Health, which updates figures at 3 p.m. daily.
Last week, Cobb reported 685 positive cases, a one-week record.
The Cobb death toll rose by two on Wednesday to 245, the second-highest total in Georgia. Fulton County has reported 314 deaths.
The cumulative hospitalization numbers in Cobb County have gone up to 872, up from 861 on Monday.
Cobb’s cumulative test positivity rate—the percentage of confirmed cases against the number of people tested—is at 5.74 percent, but Memark said in the last few weeks, as noted above, that number has in some cases more than doubled.
On June 26, the last date for which figures are available, the test positivity rate was 9.97 percent (see graphic below). The day before, the figure was nearly 13 percent, the highest since early May, not long after Cobb and Georgia began reopening some businesses and public activities.
Those figures are only for people tested at the Cobb and Douglas Public Health testing facility at Jim Miller Park, where 14,153 total tests have been conducted.
Cobb’s figures are reflected in similar trends in Georgia, which has 2,827 deaths, 11,275 hospitalizations and has 84,237 positive COVID cases.
More than 855,000 people have had viral COVID tests in Georgia, with a positivity rate of nine percent, and nearly 158,000 additional antibody tests have been conducted (Cobb isn’t doing antibody tests).
On Wednesday 22 more deaths were reported in Georgia, along with 2,946 cases and 224 new hospitalizations. Nearly 14 percent of the reported 21.508 viral tests were positive for COVID.
The rising numbers have prompted Gov. Brian Kemp to extend the state’s public health emergency to Aug. 11and continue social distancing restrictions. While he’s calling on Georgians to wear face masks, he’s not mandating it, although on Wednesday he said that having a college football season would be a “tall task” if COVID numbers stay on the rise.
In her order, Memark said those who are medically fragile should shelter-in-place through July 15, leaving home only for food and for medical reasons.
For everyone else, she’s encouraging familiar steps to help prevent the spread of the virus:
Frequently wash their hands or use hand sanitizer
Stand 6 feet away from others when outside their home
Wear cloth masks when social distancing is not consistently possible
Stay at home when you are sick
Continue to frequently disinfect your home and business
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
In a social media posting Monday, Gov. Brian Kemp said “Wear your mask, Georgia—and Go Dawgs!”
With a significant rise in COVID-19 cases in Georgia in recent weeks, Gov. Brian Kemp on Monday extended the state’s public health emergency for a third time.
The current declaration was to have expired on Tuesday, but in a new executive order Kemp on Monday said he was extending it to Aug. 11 (you can read it here).
In another executive order on Monday, Kemp banned public gatherings of 50 people or more unless they can keep at least six feet apart and imposed other social distancing restrictions. Those requirements include regular and in some cases increased sanitizing measures.
“As we continue our fight against COVID-19 in Georgia, it is vital that Georgians continue to heed public health guidance by wearing a mask, washing their hands regularly, and practicing social distancing,” Kemp said in a statement. “We have made decisions throughout the pandemic to protect the lives —and livelihoods—of all Georgians by relying on data and the advice of public health officials.”
The social distancing order, which begins on Wednesday and continues through July 15 (you can read it here) outlines mandatory criteria for businesses and requires those living in long-term care facilities and the medically fragile to continue to shelter in place.
Georgia has had a record number of COVID-19 cases reported for three days running, with 2,207 positive tests on Monday, and a relatively high positivity rate (number of positive cases to the number of tests) of 13.4 percent.
On Sunday, the new positive cases statewide totaled 2,225, and the seven-day average of 2,207 over the last week is 60 percent higher than the previous week.
The number of COVID-related deaths in Georgia is 2,784, a mortality rate of 0.2 percent and that represents 3.5 percent of the 79,417 confirmed cases.
The death rate has flattened out in recent weeks, with six new deaths being reported since Sunday, and the hospitalization rate in Georgia also is holding steady, with 113 more reports of a cumulative total of 10,824.
In Cobb County, there have been 4,713 cases in all, and last week (June 22-28) a record 685 cases were reported.
On June 20, there were a reported 108 new cases in Cobb, a single-day high. Another 83 cases were reported last Monday. By Saturday there were 34 new cases, and Monday’s total is nine more than Sunday.
Cobb COVID cases are in yellow; Douglas County in blue. View a larger version by clicking here.
The test positivity rate in Cobb is 5.74 percent, according to Cobb and Douglas Public Health, which publishes its own daily tracking data.
Cobb has the second-highest death total in the state, with 242 fatalities, though none were reported on Monday.
Kemp also is embarking on a statewide tour to encourage people to wear masks in public, but unlike governors in other states, he is not mandating it.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
To use hover map, click here. Source: Cobb and Douglas Public Health.
Here’s the latest update in our somewhat-weekly look at COVID-19 cases in East Cobb, Cobb County and Georgia, as we’ve been getting more detailed breakdowns from local and state public health agencies.
There’s a significant new addition to daily reporting data posted and mapped by Cobb and Douglas Public Health to include where COVID-19 deaths are occurring in the county.
The figures below show the number of positive cases and deaths in East Cobb as of Friday. These are cumulative figures:
30067: 248 cases, 7 deaths
30062: 242 cases, 12 deaths
30066: 200 cases, 9 deaths
30068: 138 cases, 16 deaths
30075: 21 cases, 0 deaths
Those totals are compiled by the Georgia Department of Public Health, State Electronic Notifiable Disease Surveillance System (SENDSS).
What’s not known is if these mortality figures include deaths reported at senior, nursing and long-term care homes.
Every Friday the Georgia Department of Community Health updates those figures from around the state, and here’s the latest for care facilities in East Cobb:
Sunrise of East Cobb, 1551 Johnson Ferry Road (30062): 1 death, 4 resident cases.
As of Friday afternoon, Cobb County has 4,467 confirmed cases of COVID-19 overall, a jump from 3,751 a week ago. To date there have been 240 deaths (up from 224) and 845 cumulative hospitalizations (up from 790).
As of Friday, there were 72,995 confirmed cases in Georgia and 2,770 deaths. There also have been 10,605 total hospitalizations and 2,244 intensive-care admissions.
For more data from Cobb and Douglas Public Health, click here.
As we noted last week, while more positive tests have been occurring within younger age groups, the vast majority of deaths have occurred among people ages 70 years and older.
There’s also a new independent tracker of Georgia DPH virus data that’s collected at covid-georgia.com and contains analysis, tracks trends and explains statistics and reporting data in accessible fashion.
Last Saturday, we posted with an update showing 650 positive tests (cumulative) in the five ZIP codes in East Cobb.
As of Wednesday afternoon, that number had grown to 696, according to figures posted by Cobb and Douglas Public Health.
Here’s a link to a hover map (screenshot above) that tracks the number of cases by each ZIP Code and contains related data.
Two ZIP Codes in East Cobb have more than 200 positive cases each. The biggest number of cases continue to be in ZIP Codes in Marietta and South Cobb. The figures do not break down the number of hospitalizations or deaths by ZIP Code.
The figures below show the number of cases in East Cobb, with Wednesday’s figures next to the ZIP Code, and last Friday’s totals in parenthesis:
30067: 205 (192)
30062: 203 (180)
30066: 156 (150)
30068: 116 (113)
30075: 16 (15)
The totals are compiled by the Georgia Department of Public Health, State Electronic Notifiable Disease Surveillance System (SENDSS) but do not include the number of deaths by ZIP Code.
As of Thursday afternoon, Cobb County has 3,751 confirmed cases of COVID-19 overall, 224 total deaths and 790 hospitalizations.
Only Fulton County (301) has more deaths than Cobb. Gwinnett has the most cases in the state, with 5,753, followed by Fulton (5,325) and DeKalb (4,541), then Cobb.
The number of positive viral tests in Georgia now stands at 60,912 for an infection rate of 8.4 percent for viral tests. A total of 2,605 Georgians have died due to COVID-19. The Cobb infection rate is 5.3 percent.
The state data also breaks down cases and deaths by race, sex and ethnicity, and indicates whether those who’ve died also had comorbidities (other health issues).
The vast majority of COVID-19 deaths in Georgia have been people who are 60 and older: 1,050 are 80 and older, 696 are from ages 70-79 and 490 deaths have been between ages 60-69.
A total of 178 of Cobb’s 224 deaths have been people ages 70 and older: 31 for ages 90 and older, 72 for ages 80-89 and 74 for ages 70-79. Another 22 people in Cobb have died between the ages of 60-69.
The highest number of cases is taking place among younger populations, especially as the rate of testing has increased. A total of 10,702 cases in Georgia are between the ages of 18-29, 10,359 between 50-59, 10,170 between 40-49 and 9,746 between 40-49.
The respective number of deaths in those groups are 11, 217, 96 and 44.
In Cobb County, the age group with the most cases is ages 50-59, with 608 cases. There have been 593 cases for ages 40-49, 581 cases for ages 30-39 and 512 cases for ages 20-29.
For more data from Cobb and Douglas Public Health, click here.
Cobb government has a COVID-19 dashboard using data from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
There’s also a new independent tracker of Georgia DPH virus data that’s collected at covid-georgia.com and contains analysis, including the trends noted above with newer cases occurring among younger populations, and noting more asymptomatic cases.
Since there’s been a bit of a bump in COVID-19 cases in Georgia, we’re taking a second look this week at how that breaks down in Cobb County and East Cobb in particular.
On Monday, we posted with an update showing 608 positive tests (cumulative) in the five ZIP codes in East Cobb.
As of Friday afternoon, that number had grown to 650, according to figures posted by Cobb and Douglas Public Health.
Here’s a link to a hover map (screenshot above) that tracks the number of cases by each ZIP Code and contains related data.
The biggest jump in East Cobb took place in 30067, which had 174 cases at the start of the week, and now has a reported 192 cases. The biggest number in the county remains 30060, which has 430 positive cases, followed by 30127 (337) and 30008 (309).
The figures below show the number of cases in East Cobb, with Friday’s figures next to the ZIP Code, and Monday’s totals in parenthesis:
30067: 192 (174)
30062: 180 (172)
30066: 150 (140)
30068: 113 (109)
30075: 15 (13)
The totals are compiled by the Georgia Department of Public Health, State Electronic Notifiable Disease Surveillance System (SENDSS) but do not include the number of deaths by ZIP Code.
Across Cobb County there have been 3,522 confirmed cases of COVID-19 overall, 215 total deaths and 752 hospitalizations.
Those are among the highest figures in the state for any county, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health, which updates figures daily at 3 p.m.
The rate of testing also has gone up significantly in Georgia, with 586,426 viral tests (to determine whether someone’s infected) and 110,825 antibody tests.
Georgia DPH had been combining them but now lists them separately.
The number of positive viral tests now stands at 50,251 for an infection rate of 8.6 percent. A total of 2,418 Georgians have died due to COVID-19. In Cobb County, the test positivity rate is 5.26 percent.
The state data also breaks down cases and deaths by race, sex and ethnicity.
For more data from Cobb and Douglas Public Health, click here.
Cobb government has a COVID-19 dashboard using data from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Another gradual lifting of restrictions due to COVID-19 was announced by Gov. Brian Kemp on Thursday, including removal of a general shelter-in-place order for Georgia citizens aged 65 and older that had been in place since March.
The order, which begins on Tuesday, June 16, and continues through June 30, also relaxes restrictions on a wide variety of public gatherings, including sports competitions, summer camps, live performances, conventions and restaurants and bars.
Gatherings of up to 50 people will be allowed with social distancing requirements.
Starting on Tuesday, there won’t be a party maximum for the number of people who can sit together, nor will there be a limit on the number of patrons allowed per square foot.
Workers at restaurants, bars, banquet facilities and other private event facilities won’t have to wear face masks unless they’re interacting with patrons.
Bars will be allowed to have 50 people, or 35 percent of the total listed fire capacity, whichever number is greater.
Cafeteria-style service at salad bars and buffets is allowed if the restaurant provides hand sanitizer and sneeze guard, practices social distancing and replaces self-service utensils.
Also starting Tuesday, indoor movie theaters and cinemas won’t have to limit the number of people seated together in a party.
Walk-in customers will be allowed at body art studios, barber shops, hair salons, massage therapy establishments and tanning facilities.
The order also requires professional sports teams and organizations to follow the rules and guidelines set by their respective leagues. High school and collegiate teams and organizations must follow rules and guidelines set by their conferences or associations. Amateur sports teams and organizations must follow criteria for non-critical infrastructure entities in the order.
Those attending or working overnight summer camps must prove they have received a negative COVID-19 test within 12 days—an increase from seven days—prior to the starting date of a camp.
Two other major areas of restrictions to be eased will be effective July 1.
Conventions, trade shows, exhibitions and business retreats (100 people or more) will be allowed if they meet 21 specific requirements and get a special permit.
That does not pertain to regular religious services, business meetings or sporting events.
Also on July 1, live performance venues may reopen if they meet specific criteria based on three tiers of activities.
A shelter-in-place order still applies to the following:
Those persons who live in a nursing home or long-term care facility, including inpatient hospice, assisted living communities, personal care homes, intermediate care homes, community living arrangements, and community integration homes
Those persons who have chronic lung disease
Those persons who have moderate to severe asthma
Those persons who have severe heart disease
Those persons who are immunocompromised
Those persons, of any age, with class III or severe obesity
Those persons diagnosed with the following underlying medical conditions: diabetes, liver disease, and persons with chronic kidney disease undergoing dialysis.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Here are the latest figures in our periodical update breaking down COVID-19 cases in Cobb County, and specifically in map form by ZIP Code, per Cobb and Douglas Public Health.
The first figure after the ZIP code is the number of cases as of Sunday, and the numbers you see in parenthesis are from updates on May 7 and May 28, respectively
30067: 174 (150, 93)
30062: 172 (160,113)
30066: 140 (126, 95)
30068: 109 (98, 68)
30075: 13 (14, 11)
The highest number of cases in Cobb continues to be Marietta 30060, which is reporting 400 as of Sunday. There are 301 cases in 30127, in the Powder Springs area, and 296 in Marietta 30008, southwest of the city.
As we noted in previous mapping posts (here and here), none of those figures, which come from the Georgia Department of Public Health, State Electronic Notifiable Disease Surveillance System (SENDSS), include the number of deaths by ZIP Code.
You can hover over that map, which is regularly updated, by clicking here.
As of 3 p.m. Monday, there were 3,298 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Cobb County, with 196 deaths and 718 hospitalizations.
The case total is fourth-highest in the state and the death total trails only the 256 deaths that have been reported in Fulton County.
Across Georgia there have been 52,497 confirmed cases, 2,208 deaths and 8,746 hospitalizations.
A total of 544,372 viral tests have been conducted in the state, and another 105,013 antibody tests. DPH had come under scrutiny for combining both of those figures but in recent weeks has begun reporting them in separate columns.
The number of positive viral tests is 47,493, or 8.7 percent of those tested.
The state data also breaks down cases and deaths by race, sex and ethnicity.
For more data from Cobb and Douglas Public Health, click here.
Cobb government has a COVID-19 dashboard using data from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The program is called the Select Cobb Small Business Grants, after the chamber’s economic development arm, which will distribute grants to qualifying businesses in amounts ranging from $20,000 to $40,000. The funding can be used on personnel, rent, utilities and acquiring PPE for employee safety.
Here’s what SelectCobb sent out late Thursday afternoon:
Applications will open on June 8, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. and close on June 26, 2020 at 5:00 p.m. A full list of eligibility requirements and more information about the application process will be available at www.selectcobb.com on June 1. The website and email address for this program—www.selectcobb.com/grants and grants@selectcobb.com—will be available on June 1. Also, a webinar on how to apply for the small business grants will be held on June 10th at 10:00 am through the Cobb Chamber.
“Maintaining jobs and promoting growth within Cobb County has been and always will be our number one priority for our small business community,” said Kevin Greiner, president and CEO of Gas South and Chairman of SelectCobb for the Cobb Chamber. “The SelectCobb Small Business Relief Grants will allow Cobb’s small businesses to stand strong during this pandemic and continue to meet necessary business expenses, as well as providing capital to acquire PPE and other resources to ensure a safe working environment for their employees.”
To be considered for the SelectCobb Small Business Relief Grant, small businesses must meet the following requirements:
Business must be an existing for-profit corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship;
Business headquarters or primary location must be within Cobb County;
Business must have 100 or fewer full-time, W-2 employees, i.e., employees working at least 30 hours per week or 130 hours per month;
Business must have been in continuous operation for a minimum of 1 year prior to March 13, 2020;
Business must have a current business license issued by Cobb County Government, City of Acworth, City of Austell, City of Kennesaw, City of Marietta, City of Powder Springs, or City of Smyrna;
Business must be current on all local taxes;
Business may be home-based or located in an owned or leased commercial space;
Business must certify if they have received PPP funds as of time of application submittal; and
Business cannot be a publicly traded company.
Grant funding will be available in three different tiers based upon the number of full-time, W-2 employees employed by the company as of March 12, 2020. The tiers of grant funding include, up to $20,000 for 1 to 10 employees; up to $30,000 for 11 to 50 employees; and up to $40,000 for 51 to 100 employees.
“I’m gratified that the board came together to address an important segment of our community, the small business community,” said Chairman Mike Boyce after the vote. “It demonstrates when it is all said and done, this board has the best interest of the county at heart. We work every day to do the best we can with the money we have—whether it is county money, state money, or federal money—we all have a duty to make sure the taxpayer’s money is spent appropriately and I think this is one action that reflects that.”
SelectCobb staff will review each application to ensure that all eligibility requirements are met. Once applications are closed, an independent committee of business representatives will review each eligible application and decide which companies will receive grant funds and how much will be provided, up to the maximum allowed by each tier. The committee will be comprised of individuals from all areas of Cobb, and will include a diverse group of industries being represented, including banking, certified public accountants, law, small business and county government.
The committee will review applications per Commission District so that all areas are equally represented in the number of companies being assisted. Once determinations are made, a public announcement of grants funds will be made by representatives of the selection committee, SelectCobb, Cobb Chamber, and Cobb County Government.
“Cobb County should be applauded for creating one of the largest small business grants in the region,” said Dana Johnson, executive director of SelectCobb. “I want to thank the Board of Commissioners for their leadership and commitment to ensuring that Cobb County remains one of the top destinations for small businesses.”
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
To hover over a larger map with more details, click here.
Earlier this month the Cobb and Douglas Public Health Department began breaking down the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in each county by ZIP Code, as part of a rollout of more data about how the virus has spread.
We posted about that on May 7, and thought we’d revisit those numbers as well as others across the state over the past three weeks.
With more testing taking place in Cobb and Georgia, public health officials have acknowledged that the number of positive tests would be going up. In three East Cobb ZIP Codes, the number of COVID-19 cases has surpassed triple figures, and another will soon reach that mark.
Here’s the ZIP Code breakdown for East Cobb areas as of Wednesday, with the May 7 numbers in parenthesis:
30062: 160 (113)
30067: 150 (93)
30066: 126 (95)
30068: 98 (68)
30075: 14 (11)
None of those figures, which come from the Georgia Department of Public Health, State Electronic Notifiable Disease Surveillance System (SENDSS), include the number of deaths by ZIP Code.
You can hover over that map, which is regularly updated, by clicking here.
As of noon Thursday, there have been 45,070 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Georgia, and 1,962 deaths. A total of 523,359 tests have been conducted across the state.
That compares with 34,848 cases and 1,494 deaths on May 12.
In Cobb County, there are 2,924 confirmed cases of the virus and 164 deaths. On May 12, Cobb had 2,253 cases and 124 deaths.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
After some discussion Tuesday morning, the Cobb Board of Commissioners approved using more than $50 million of federal COVID-19 stimulus funds to help small businesses and low-income renters facing evictions.
In the case of the small business grants, a total of $50 million will be earmarked to help businesses retain employees and meet other expenses to stay open.
The proposal would limit eligible business to those with 100 employees or less and stipulated that they must own or lease commercial property for their operations in Cobb County.
But commissioner Lisa Cupid of South Cobb got her colleagues to agree to expand the criteria to those who have home-based businesses.
She also wanted to cap the number of eligible business with up to 20 employees.
Select Cobb, the development arm of the Cobb Chamber of Commerce, will oversee the selection of the businesses to get the grants. Starting next Monday, more information will be available on its website about the application and eligibility process.
Select Cobb and commissioners will appoint an independent committee representing a variety of industries and business sectors to choose the grant recipients.
An equitable number of businesses will be chosen from the four commission districts, and they will be eligible for funding as follows:
1 to 10 employees – up to $20,000;
11 to 50 employees – up to $30,000;
51 to 100 employees – up to $40,000.
Select Cobb will receive $500,000 in stimulus funding to oversee the selection and distribution process.
Also Tuesday, commissioners approved spending $1.5 million of the federal stimulus funds to help tenants work out agreements with landlords for back rent in order to avoid eviction.
Star-C, an Atlanta non-profit with offices in Cobb County, will administer that funding. Under the plan, low-income apartment dwellers facing evictions would receive a “scholarship” of up to 70 percent of their overdue payment total. The remaining 20 percent would be paid by the tenant and the landlord would be asked to pay the remaining 10 percent and waive the late fee.
Cobb County has received $132 million in funding from the federal CARES Act, and earlier this month approved spending $1 million to reimburse Cobb non-profits who’ve been providing emergency food supplies.
Also on Tuesday, commissioners designated several categories to spend the rest of the money, and these are subject to change.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
