Georgia Week in Review – April 15

Cases are rising again in Georgia, but from a very low level. Recent cases climbed for the second week in a row, and test positivity is rising as well.

Deaths are still falling, and are still artificially high due to data reporting lag from the Omicron wave. For the past two weeks, only about 1/4 of the deaths reported are recent, and many deaths being reported are from the January peak.

Hospital metrics in Georgia are still at RECORD LOWS since reporting began in spring/summer 2020. New CDC metrics were announced a few weeks ago that incorporate hospital rates as well as more realistic case rates, and they show the country in a pretty good position right now, with most of the country now in the Low level. Although cases are rising in many states, hospitalizations remain very low due to prior immunity from vaccination and infection.

BA.2 seems to be having the most impact in the Northeast, where cases have been rising for weeks and new hospital admissions are starting to rise a little. Due to seasonal/weather differences, it’s unclear if the recent increase in the Northeast will be as noticeable in the South.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Friday, April 15 marked the last day of daily Covid reporting by Georgia DPH. They will start updating once a week, on Wednesday, beginning April 20. I think this change is long overdue, and I am full support of it. While I’ve updated my graphs daily, I have said for a long time that a weekly review of the data is more than enough, and allows people to see real trends without being distracted by day-to-day fluctuations. I am updating my web site and visualizations to focus on weekly reporting going forward.

Weekly Metrics for Georgia