DPH transitions to Weekly COVID-19 Data Reporting

From Special and Staff Reports

ATLANTA – The Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) is transitioning from daily to weekly COVID-19 data reporting. Case counts and vaccination updates will be published on the DPH website every Wednesday beginning April 20. The last daily updates to the Daily Status Report and the vaccine dashboard will be April 15. 

“We believe weekly COVID reporting will continue to support a sustainable response in Georgia while informing decision-making around transmission and infection rates,” said Kathleen E. Toomey, M.D., M.P.H., commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health. “DPH epidemiologists and the data team have worked tirelessly for more than two years to provide this information to the public. We are extremely grateful for their work and dedication.”

Coweta County

So far in April,  has confirmed 55 new COVID-19 cases for an average of 3.9 per day. It’s slightly more than the March per day rate (3.5) but drastically lower than February (22.5 per day) and January (record-high 143.9 per day). The number of COVID-related deaths this month is 6 and hospitalizations stand at 18. The two-week infection rate is at 2.3 percent as of April 14.

Coweta has posted 23 new COVID-19 cases (3.8 per day) this week (April 9-14) with 2 deaths and 11 hospitalizations.

Regarding vaccinations, Coweta has reported 169,074 vaccines applied through April 14. The county has a 52 percent rate of people with the 1st shot, 48 percent fully vaccinated and 43 percent that are fully vaccinated with at least one booster shot.

Some 25 months into the pandemic, Coweta County has confirmed 20,925 cases with 425 deaths (with an additional 57 probable deaths) and 1,412 hospitalizations overall.

DPH Data

Weekly intervals provide a more complete picture than day-to-day changes or data fluctuations when determining areas of concern or COVID’s trajectory in the state. Given the number of at-home COVID tests that do not get reported, there is a now a greater focus on other indicators such as hospital admissions, hospital occupancy, and overall vaccination rates when assessing the community impact of COVID-19.

Additional data that are reported weekly by the DPH (e.g., County Indicator Report, Breakthrough Case Report, School-Aged Surveillance Report, etc.) will continue to be published on their current publication days. 

Also, per new CDC guidance, only positive and negative PCR test results and positive antigen tests are required to be reported. Facilities no longer need to report negative results from antigen or rapid tests, and they no longer need to report any positive or negative results for antibody tests. Home tests also are not reportable.

Due to this reporting requirement change and the change in data received by DPH, the following columns will be removed from the COVID-19 Testing table:

 ·  PCR/Molecular Reported Today 

·  Total Antigen 

·  Total Antibody (Serology) 

 Changes have also been made to the downloadable data files, see The Latest: What’s New with this Report for additional information.

For updates on COVID-19, follow @GaDPH and @GovKemp on Twitter and @GaDPH and @GovKemp on Facebook.