(FROM GEORGIA NEWS NETWORK AND GLORY 97.5 ONLINE NEWS DESK)
New data shows a resurgence of COVID-19.
The CDC says COVID hospitalizations have risen by more than ten percent across the country. That’s the largest percentage increase since December. Emergency room visits also jumped in the past month. A CDC spokesperson adds, however, that COVID-19 rates in the U.S. are still near historic lows.
Meanwhile, in Gainesville the Northeast Georgia Health System (NGHS) says it recently saw a surge systemwide, which includes hospitals and other medical facilities in Gainesville and several nearby cities.
“Across Northeast Georgia Health System – including Northeast Georgia Physicians Group and Longstreet Clinic – we administered 1,079 COVID-19 tests during the week of July 13, and 24.93% of those were positive for the COVID-19 virus,” said Dr. Supriya Mannepalli, director of infectious diseases at NGHS. While this was a sharp increase from the previous week’s positivity percentage of 11.5%, it’s important to remember that we only have about 10 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 – much fewer than the 355 we saw at our highest point in the pandemic.”
Dr. Manepalli added that it’s hard to point to a specific reason for this recent rise in positive cases, “but it falls in line with what we’ve seen the past three years. We typically have increases in cases in July and August and again in December and January. We are continuing to monitor COVID-19 levels based on these positive percentages, and we’ve already seen that positive percentage drop to 21.94% for the week of July 20.”
And from a new University of Georgia study: a major development in the fight against COVID. Research conducted by UGA’s Department of Infectious Diseases shows an anti-inflammatory drug to treat gout can also combat the coronavirus.
(GEORGIA NEWS NETWORK CONTRIBUTED TO THIS STORY.)