Oct. 29: Georgia seeing steady rise in COVID-19 cases, deaths

Georgia is seeing a steady rise in new cases of COVID-19 and new deaths, including two in Augusta, while cases were elevated in South Carolina but deaths remained low.

Georgia added 1,823 new cases in a steady rise all week to reach 356,848 with 47 new deaths for 7,923, the Department of Health and Environmental Control reported. Richmond County saw 48 new cases for 8,012 and Columbia County had 29 for 4,415. All other counties had four new cases or less: three in Burke for 896, one in Jefferson for 857, four in McDuffie for 689, three in Jenkins for 472, three in Wilkes for 303, two in Warren for 167, one in Glascock for 50 and two in Taliaferro for 30. Unchanged were Screven County at 450 and Lincoln County at 235.

Richmond County suffered two new deaths for 185 and raised the area’s toll to 466.

Georgia Public Health got the results of 21,988 tests, of which 8.29% were positive, below the overall positive rate of 9.28%, which dropped slightly, according to analaysis by the Augusta Chronicle. However, the seven-day average continued to rise, from 1,610.7 to 1,616.1, the analysis found.

AU Health System added 49 cases to reach 11,639 since its first reports in March, with 25 patients in the hospital, the same as Wednesday, spokeswoman Christen Engel said.

After a recent peak of 50 patients being treated this week at University Hospital, there were 49 on Thursday and the hospital continues to discharge patients, spokeswoman Rebecca Sylvester said. University has had 1,496 cases since the pandemic began.

Doctors Hospital of Augusta had no new cases for the third day in a row to remain at 342 with 11 patients in the hospital, down one from Wednesday, spokesman Kaden Jacobs said.

Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center in Augusta had no new cases to remain at 616, with 18 active cases among veterans and 38 deaths, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs web site.

South Carolina added 867 new cases to reach 166,344 with 11 new deaths for 3,645, the Department of Health and Environmental Control reported. Aiken County saw 27 new cases for 4,597 with 77 deaths and Edgefield County had four more for 894 with 17 deaths.

The state got the results of 23,187 tests, of which 3.74% were positive, less than half of the overall positive rate of 8.49%, which fell slightly, according to the analysis. But the seven-day average continued to creep upward from 728 to 730, Chronicle analysis found.