MACON, Ga. — On Monday, Governor Brian Kemp said the state is seeing a drop in new cases during an announcement to open a new test site in Atlanta.
Georgia is on its way to cutting the 7-day moving average nearly in half between the highest point in July at nearly 4,300 new cases a day and the end of July, right before this preliminary window. At that time, the state averaged about 2,500 new cases.
However, the state is still adding more than three times as many new cases a a day compared to the peak in April, and many central Georgia counties are still considered areas of substantial spread.
Individual case curves for Bibb and Houston counties show a similar trend to the statewide case curve, but that is not the same in counties like Laurens, Twiggs, Peach, or Baldwin.
While cases in the state as a whole started to drop, those counties and others saw mostly increases over the last few weeks.
For example, about a third of Laurens County's 951 cases came in just the last three weeks. Bleckley County confirmed more than half of its 242 cases in the last two weeks.
Statewide, hospitals are seeing fewer new patients a day, but just like with the case curve, the numbers are still well-above what Georgia saw earlier in the year.
There is a more significant drop in COVID-19-related deaths in the state, but again, the preliminary window is a big factor because of the time it takes for the state to get reports from death certificates, hospitals, and coroners. It appears the numbers were on a downward trend before the start of the preliminary window though.