MACON, Ga. — After a steady increases in the number of new cases per day since early June, there appears to be a small dip in the curve, according to the latest data from the Georgia Department of Public Health as of July 19.
The small decrease comes right before the state's 14-day window of preliminary data.
The data shows the state reached a peak on July 2, where the moving average came just shy of 3,300 new cases per day.
The line starts to trend downward with the average sitting closer to 3,100 right before the start of the preliminary data.
However, that is still four times higher than where the state peaked back in April, which was around new 760 cases a day.
It is important to note that while changes are expected to come for the last 14 days of data, it is likely there will be some differences even before then
Michael Hokanson with the North Central Health District says some labs are taking anywhere from one to two months to report data to the DPH.
He says that is more so the case with some smaller labs and physician's offices and is not something the state department can control. He says this has been less prevalent in his district though.
Hospitals across the state are not seeing much relief. This data shows the state averaging 250 hospitalizations, which is up from 212 the week before and well above the peak of around 180 in April.
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While COVID-19-related deaths appear to still be dropping overall, there has been a slight uptick in the last two weeks. That is, however, within the state's preliminary data period.
This data also tends to lag behind other indicators because of the time it takes for the state to get reports from coroners, hospitals, and through death certificates.