Cobb health director: 'Dire situation' as COVID spread grows

Saying that “we are in substantial community transmission of COVID-19,” the director of Cobb and Douglas Public Health issued a “surge alert” Tuesday for the second time in as many weeks.

Dr. Janet Memark said that although there are arrivals of promising vaccines coming soon, “I would be remiss to not mention the dire situation that our community is facing.”

She said the 14-day average of COVID0-19 cases Cobb County is 678 per 100,000, which includes both forms of COVID tests: The basic and more common PCR test, and the rapid antigen tests.

The Georgia Department of Public Health daily status report on Wednesday indicated that the 14-day average for the PCR test alone is 524, a figure that has been growing sharply in recent weeks. That’s also high as that figure was during the summer spike.

Public health officials say a two-week average of 100 cases per 100,000 is considered high community spread.

Earlier Tuesday the Cobb County School District announced that the fall semester would end all-online, as Thursday and Friday classes are switching to a remote format due to the COVID case surge.

Last week, Memark sent a letter to school parents urging caution, following a Cobb single-day record of 404 reported cases of COVID-19.

Thus far in December there have been 4,331 cases reported in Cobb, an average of 288 a day. On Wednesday, another 215 cases were reported.

More from Memark’s surge alert letter:

“Hospitals are extremely full with a record number of COVID-19 hospitalizations to match the record number of cases that we are seeing. Much of what we are seeing is thought to be due to the holiday traveling and gathering from the Thanksgiving vacation.
“Many of you may have heard that Cobb schools announced an early switch to virtual learning for the rest of the week before the holiday break. I know that this is an inconvenience to many of our families, but the rising number of cases being brought into the schools increases the risk of in-school transmission. We work collaboratively with the school districts to help them have the safest environment for both students and faculty.
“These extra days will also allow Cobb & Douglas Public Health and Cobb County School District staff to complete case investigation and contact tracing on existing cases in an attempt to keep families of students/staff healthy during the holiday break.

“Vaccination for the mass population is still months away. Many of our residents can be hospitalized or lose their lives to COVID-19 in that time frame. We need you to help us slow this down and reverse the trajectory that we are on.”

Memark didn’t provide hospitalization figures, and urged the public to continue following public health guidance, including mask-wearing in public, washing hands and staying at least six feet away from others.

She also urged people not to gather “with those outside of your immediate family bubble. We know these actions work and it is critically important that we all do our part to fight this virus.”

Since the pandemic began in March, there have been 30,800 COVID-19 cases in Cobb County and 518 deaths, the second-highest number of fatalities in Georgia behind the 707 who have died in Fulton County.

In Georgia, there have been 484,152 cases and 9,250 confirmed deaths. On Wednesday, there were 4,860 new cases and 35 confirmed deaths reported by the state DPH.