COVID cases in Georgia near last winter’s peak
ATLANTA — Cases of COVID-19 in Georgia have surged to levels not seen since the virus peaked last January, a public health expert warned last week.
New cases statewide are nearing 8,000 a day, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health.
Of Georgians being tested for COVID-19, 17.2% are turning up positive, Dr. Janet Memark, district health director for Cobb C Douglas Public Health, said Aug. 26 during an online forum sponsored by the Georgia House Democratic Caucus. The community is considered safe when fewer than 5% of test results are positive, she said.
Memark blamed the delta variant, which is much more contagious than the original strain of coronavirus that first struck Georgia in March of last year.
“It is just really rampant now throughout our communities,” she said.
Memark said many hospitals are strained, with unvaccinated
Georgians making up the vast majority of rising patient loads.
“We are seeing some breakthrough cases,” she said. “But they’re not being hospitalized or dying. The vaccine is working.”
Dr. Carlos del Rio, a leading epidemiologist at Emory University, said a
person who contracts the delta variant of COVID-19 can infect up to eight others, making it much more dangerous than the original strain, which typically can infect two to three people exposed to someone with the virus.
“The virus we’re facing today is very different from the original virus,” he said. “This is so highly transmissible, it’s not the COVID we knew a year ago.”