WH report: Muscogee County in COVID-19 green zone for test rate. Here’s the data
A test positivity rate below 5% put Muscogee County in the coronavirus green zone as federal task force officials recommended Georgia increase testing and continue its virus mitigation efforts statewide.
The latest White House coronavirus task force report shows the county’s test positivity rate from Sept. 24-30 was between 3% and 4.9%. More recent data from the Georgia Department of Public Health shows Muscogee County with a seven-day test positive rate at 2.9% as of Oct. 8.
“Any time I see our numbers or percentages going down I feel pretty good. I think this shows how well the people of Columbus work together,” said Pam Kirkland, spokesperson for the West Central Health District. “Navigating through this pandemic definitely takes a village, and I think we must continue to remain diligent in our efforts to keep our community safe.”
More data trends
Case data from Sept. 26-Oct. 2 landed Muscogee County in the orange zone, meaning 51 to 100 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people were confirmed during that time.
More recent data from the New York Times shows further improvement. Muscogee has reported 45 cases per 100,000 people over the last seven days.
The larger Columbus metro area was designated a coronavirus yellow zone in the latest task force report due to some outlying counties reporting higher test positivity rates than Muscogee. The White House task force document was published by the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit newsroom based in Washington D.C.
Muscogee County reported 22 new COVID-19 cases Thursday. Since the start of the pandemic, a total of 6,159 COVID-19 cases and 172 deaths have been confirmed. No new deaths were reported Thursday.
As of Oct. 8, Muscogee County has reported 103 cases per 100,000 people over the last 14 days. Gov. Brian Kemp’s coronavirus executive orders allow local governments to enact mask mandates if a county has reported 100 or more COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people over a two-week period.
Mayor Skip Henderson could not be reached for comment about the latest task force report.
Georgia reported 8,123 COVID-19 cases during the week of Sept. 26 through Oct. 2 at a rate of roughly 77 confirmed infections per 100,000 people.
That was the 28th highest rate in the nation, and put Georgia in the orange zone for cases. The state reported 17% fewer cases than the week before. The statewide test positivity from Sept. 24-30 was in the yellow zone at 6.0%, a slight drop of .1% from the week before.
More recent data shows the state’s case rate has increased slightly. Georgia reported 82 cases per 100,000 people over the last seven days, the New York Times reports.
Georgia reported 1,297 new COVID-19 cases and 36 deaths Thursday. Since the start of the pandemic, 327,407 COVID-19 cases and 7,294 deaths have been confirmed statewide.
This story was originally published October 9, 2020 at 9:45 AM.