MACON, Ga. — By now you've heard about all about the COVID "curve," but actually understanding it can be tricky.
Here it is.
It uses data from the Georgia Department of Public Health and it shows new confirmed cases from every day since mid-March.
At first glance, it looks like the trend line plummets in the last two weeks, but that's not really the case.
Recently, the state started backdating cases, graphing them based not on when they're reported, but when symptoms first began.
So, for example, if you get diagnosed with COVID-19 today but your symptoms started 10 days ago, the state will graph your case 10 days ago.
With that in mind, the state warns the data in the most recent 14-day window (in the orange zone on our graph) is subject to change.
That's because new cases could be reported in the days to come that would get backdated to 14-day period.
There are some who say we shouldn't even be showing the 14-day window since the data is likely incomplete.
We want to give you all the information that's out there, and since the Georgia Department of Public Health itself is reporting it, we're including it too with the caveat that the data in the orange 14-day window should be viewed as incomplete.
Everything in the "blue zone" outside the 14-day period is more concrete.
That data shows the state had a long period of case growth from mid-March to mid-April.
Then, things flattened out a bit, with a 7-day average of around 700 new cases a day.
Then, there was another bump up closer to an average of 750 new cases per day and then a slight drop from about April 20 to the start of the 14-day window.
We'll see how things go in the coming days as the orange zone data gets solidified.
That data will help us better understand if that dip is part of a trend that will continue or is just an outlier.
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