White County has seen its number of confirmed COVID-19 cases trend downward for another week, as statewide numbers tick upward.
The Georgia Department of Public Health said Wednesday, Oct. 21, that the state’s seven-day average of new cases reported increased by 3.8% between Oct. 13-19, though it remained down 65% from the state’s peak July 24. The seven-day average has risen from 1,206 cases Oct. 1 to 1,339.6 on Oct. 20, according to a DPH status report Tuesday.
White County’s seven-day average of new cases decreased from 4.7 on Oct. 13 to 3.4 on Oct. 20. From Oct. 1-20, the average has declined from 7.9 to 3.4.
The DPH update listed 24 new cases reported for the county from Oct. 13-20. Updated counts for previous weekly periods are 33 from Oct. 6-13, 68 from Sept. 29 to Oct. 6, 38 from Sept. 22 to Sept. 29, 137 from Sept. 15-22, 66 from Sept. 8-15 and 94 from Sept. 1-8.
Through the Oct. 20 DPH report, White County has had 85 confirmed cases reported so far this month. That’s pacing below the 363 cases reported in September. There were 217 cases in August and a total of 293 through July from mid-March when the first case was reported.
White County had 988 total confirmed cases.
As of Oct. 19, the White County Emergency Management Agency considered 698 cases to be recoveries out of the 982 cases reported by DPH at that
time. The agency considers a patient to have recovered 21 days after a confirmed case report is provided to the county.
As of Oct. 20, DPH reported that there had been 23 deaths attributed to the coronavirus in White County. The ages of the deceased listed include men ages 26, 36, 60, 65, 68, 79, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85 and 88, and women ages 43, 56, 71, 76, 77, 82, 87, 88 and three over 90. All but three are listed as having chronic health conditions, with one listed as “unknown.”
A White County School System weekly COVID-19 update on Oct. 21 said there were currently no students who had reported positive for COVID-19 and 11 students quarantined for possible exposure at that time. At that time, there were no reports of staff members with a positive COVID-19 test or quarantined for possible exposure.
The report lists students and staff who are out on that particular day – in this case, Oct. 21 – because of a positive test or exposure to somebody with COVID-19, and are not cumulative numbers.
There are currently 3,729 students enrolled in the school system.