The Cobb County School District said Friday there were 132 confirmed new cases of COVID-19, a little higher than last week but still reflecting a steep decline in recent weeks.
The district’s weekly update showed a total of 4,132 cumulative cases since last July 1. Last week’s 106 cases among students and staff were the fewest since November.
For the second week in a row all schools reporting cases had 10 or less. The most this week were 8 each at Wheeler High School and Still Elementary School.
Of the 11 schools in the district, 51 did not report any new cases this week.
The district’s data does not break down numbers of cases between students and staff, nor does it indicate how many other people may be out due to quarantine for possible exposure to the virus.
The falling numbers in the Cobb school district are in line with similar trends in Cobb County and much of Georgia.
There were 120 new cases reported in Cobb Friday in the date of report category, with a 7-day rolling average of 81.1. That’s the lowest since late October.
In the date of onset category (in the chart above), Cobb’s 7-day moving average as of Feb. 26—the last day before a current 14-day window—was 98.6 cases, the lowest that figure has been since late October.
Cobb’s community spread metric also is dropping close to what it had been in the late fall, after last summer’s surge and before a winter surge.
As of Friday, the 14-day average of cases per 100,000 in Cobb was 179 for PCR tests, the first time it’s been under 200 since October.
Combined with Antigen tests, Cobb’s overall community spread is now in the 300-350 range, according to Dr. Janet Memark, director of Cobb and Douglas Public Health.
In a message sent out Friday, she said that “we continue to have a growing problem with the UK and the South African variants in Georgia. If these variants take hold before we have enough people vaccinated, we may suffer another tremendous surge and more loss of life. Continued preventive measures like wearing masks, physical distancing and washing hands still need to be taken during this time.”
She also referenced remarks made by President Joe Biden of having a goal of Americans returning to “normalcy” by July 4.
“How beautifully fitting would it be for our country to celebrate its independence in this way? To meet that goal, we all need to work together,” Memark said. “Please get vaccinated with whatever vaccine that you can and protect each other by not gathering without masks or socially distancing if you aren’t vaccinated. We look forward to the day when we can all be together again.”
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- Cobb schools make calendar changes for staff vaccinations
- Cobb COVID death toll surpasses 800; nearly 200 in East Cobb
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