FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — The Fulton County Board of Commissioners, mayors, emergency management, and the district health director held an emergency COVID-19 briefing Thursday afternoon with cases spiking in the county.
They're projecting the virus won't peak for two more months.
“Viruses mutate. They mutate on their own every single day," Fulton County District Health Director Dr. Lynn Paxton said.
Fulton County leaders believe COVID-19 mutating into the more-contagious omicron variant is one reason cases are surging.
“You can see it’s starting to spread throughout the state now emanating from the Atlanta metro area," Fulton County Planning Section Chief Doug Schuster said.
He added that cases are 680% worse than two weeks ago in the county.
“We are tracking positivity of all those being tested in the county, state, and hospitals," Schuster said. "The county is at 29.1%, and that’s up almost 15% in just one week’s time.”
Schuster also mentioned that cases are expected to peak at 3,000 a day in February.
“Get vaccinated, and let’s take those mitigation precautions we know work like masking, social distancing, and not gathering in places where you’re going to get exposed," Paxton said.
A separate meeting took place in Brookhaven, where city council unanimously approved extending the emergency declaration ordinance. They passed a second ordinance giving the city the ability to open more COVID-19 testing sites.