2 more Floyd residents succumb to COVID-19 over the weekend

♦ Local COVID-19 testing site changes to the Coosa Valley Fairgrounds.

Two more people have succumbed to COVID-19 infections since Friday, bringing the total of Floyd County residents who have died from the disease caused by the new coronavirus to 32.

In that same period of time the Department of Public Health reported 44 new COVID-19 cases. The number of new cases over a two week period has slowly been declining over the past few weeks.

At this point Floyd County has had 349 new cases in the past two weeks.

While that’s a lot higher than March through the beginning of July, it’s tapering off slightly from two week totals for new cases which averaged above the 400 mark in August.

However, as cases drop deaths have increased.

In August, 16 Floyd County residents have died resulting from a COVID-19 infection. That’s the same amount of deaths reported from March through July.

Of the 32 Floyd County deaths listed on the DPH daily report 26 are white, three are black and three are listed as race unknown. The ages of those who died ranges from 52 to over 90 years of age.

Twenty- five of the Floyd County residents who have died were listed with an underlying health condition while three did not and, four were listed as unknown.

A great majority of those infected with COVID-19 also have an underlying medical condition. Across the U.S., only 6% of deaths due to COVID-19 had no known comorbid condition, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stats.

On Tuesday, COVID- 19 testing in the 10- county Northwest Health District is shifting to feature additional testing times and sites.

“Our goal is to increase testing in Northwest Georgia by making it more convenient for the public while better balancing demand for testing with our resources,” Dr. Gary Voccio, health director for the ten- county Northwest Health District said in a statement.

Testing is still free and encouraged for anyone but Dr. Voccio recommended testing especially for anyone experiencing COVID-19 symptoms and for close contacts of positive cases on their tenth day of quarantine.

Under the new program, public health will provide COVID-19 testing six days a week across the Northwest Health District.

Most test sites will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. One test site in each region will be open on Saturdays.

“You do not have to reside in a county to get tested at the site in that county,” Voccio said. “Anyone may get tested at any of these test sites.”

All test sites will feature drive-up processing. No appointments are needed. Test sites in Catoosa, Dade, and Walker counties will feature supervised self-collection.

On Tuesday, COVID- 19 testing will no longer be offered at the Catoosa, Chattooga, Gordon, Haralson, Paulding, Polk, or Walker county health departments as well as West Rome Baptist Church in Rome and the Clarence Brown Conference Center in Cartersville.

New Northwest Health District regional COVID-19 test sites, including locations, days, and hours, are:

For Labor Day weekend, the only test sites open will be:

Saturday, September 5, Floyd County, Coosa Valley fairgrounds, 1400 Martin Luther King Jr., Blvd., Rome, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Monday, September 7, Paulding County, Paulding Meadows, 472 Paulding Meadows Dr., Dallas 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Monday, September 7, Catoosa County, Ringgold United Methodist Church, 7484 Nashville, St., Ringgold 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

For information about COVID-19 testing in a specific county, including locations, days, and hours, please visit the Facebook page for that county’s health department. For information about all Northwest Health District COVID-19 test sites, please go to https://nwgapublichealth.org.