ATLANTA — With the current surge of COVID-19 cases, questions arose as to whether the current numbers are higher than when the pandemic began. What do case numbers, positivity rates, hospitalizations, and deaths look like now compared to other surges or even the beginning of the pandemic?
With the omicron variant, did Georgia surpass previous COVID-19 numbers?
SOURCES:
THE ANSWER
WHAT WE FOUND:
The Georgia Department of Public Health keeps a tab on various COVID-19 data points. (The DPH has yet to update its website as of Monday, Jan. 3. Numbers listed on the website are the latest as of Friday, Dec. 31. These are the numbers that are being used for this VERIFY comparison.)
However, there are a couple of caveats with the numbers. One, rapid (antigen) tests weren’t included in the daily results on the DPH website until after October 2020, so there may have been more COVID cases in the earlier months of the pandemic. Two, test results aren’t reported regularly during certain holidays when testing sites may be closed, so there are dips and spikes in the numbers. As a result, a single day is really two or three days combined. So, we’re looking at the 7-day average to show an accurate picture.
For case numbers, the 7-day average shows 13,484 cases on Dec. 30, 2021 and 15,567 on Dec. 31, 2021. In previous waves, such as the delta variant surge over the summer, the 7-day average high was Aug. 31, 2021 with 9,454 cases. Towards the beginning of the pandemic, the highest 7-day average (again considering rapid (antigen) tests weren’t included in numbers at that point) was July 24, 2020 with 3,897 cases.
As for positivity rates, the highest day was April 4, 2020 with 37.2 percent. The second highest day ever was March 31, 2020 with 37.1 percent. The third highest day is currently Dec. 30, 2021 with 36.9 percent.
Another important data point to look at is hospitalizations and deaths. The latest data shows 3,635 hospitalizations while the record is 6,200. And as for deaths, the record single-day for deaths was Sept. 18, 2021 with 190 deaths. The record average for deaths was 107. The current average is 26 deaths.
To sum up, 7-day average case numbers are higher than ever, positivity rates are nearly as high as the beginning of the pandemic, and hospitalizations and deaths are not close to the numbers seen in previous surges, as of Dec. 31, 2021.