This tab displays trends in COVID-19 cases by residence county and age group.

COVID-19 cases are based on data available in the State Electronic Notifiable Disease Surveillance System (SendSS) as of February 29th, 2024. Only cases reported between 02/01/2020 and 02/25/2024 are included. Total population counts are taken from the 2020 OASIS Single Year of Age dataset.

Cases

• Confirmed Case: individual with a positive molecular test
• Antigen Positive Case: individual with a positive antigen test
• Date Reported: date the individual was marked as a confirmed case or as a probable case

Measures

Case counts are provided in a table split by residence location (statewide or county) and age group. “Statewide” rows combine all data collected within Georgia, including any reporting an out-of-state or unknown residence address. Persons of unknown age are counted only in rows where Age Group is “All Ages”. The remaining columns are defined as follows:

• Weekly Cases: Weekly counts of cases reported for the previous 12 weeks. Date represents the week the case was reported to DPH.
• Cases to Date: All cases reported to DPH between 02/01/2020 and 02/25/2024
• 14-day Case Count: All cases reported to DPH during the most recent 14 days included in this report (02/12-02/25).
• 14-day Case Rate (per 100k): 14-day Case Count/100K residents based on 2020 data. Rates are not calculated if corresponding counts are below 5 or for unknown or non-GA counties.
• Change in last 2 weeks: Change in case count during the previous 14 days, comparing the second 7-day period to the first 7-day period. Possible values are “Increasing” (if 5% or greater change), “Decreasing” (if -5% or less change), or “Less than 5% change” (if change is within +/-5% or if the first 7-day period had no cases reported). Change is not calculated if fewer than 5 cases were reported in this 14-day period.

Syndromic Surveillance (SS) provides a method for timely detection of potential clusters or outbreaks of specified diseases/events (Syndromes). SS data include emergency department (ED) visits based on the patient’s chief complaint upon admission and/or discharge diagnosis. Text and diagnosis codes are searched to identify syndromes which can indicate changes in the number of people seeking care in emergency departments for those diseases or conditions.

This tab uses Covid-19 (COVID) syndromes to analyze trends in ED visits potentially related to COVID-19.

Dates in this tab refer to ED visit date. Only visits occurring through 02/25/2024 are included to account for delays in reporting.

ED Visits

Approximately 90% of Georgia EDs currently report to DPH, most data are available within 72 hours of patient visit. 80% of facilities are currently submitting discharge diagnosis information, final diagnosis may differ from the chief complaint recorded during admission. Changes in counts may vary if a new facility begins reporting to DPH or temporarily stops reporting due to technical issues. Documentation of chief complaint varies by facility. SS data does not necessarily depict the true burden of specified diseases/events. Criteria for syndromes are subject to change as additional information is received.

COVID Syndrome

COVID Syndrome identifies ED visits that refer to COVID-19. It includes chief complaint text for “coronavirus”, “covid”, “c-19”, or “ncov” as well as selected discharge diagnosis codes (ICD or Snomed) relevant to COVID-19 including confirmed COVID-19, suspected/probable COVID-19, unspecified coronavirus infection, exposure to COVID-19, or severe acute respiratory syndrome. COVID Syndrome excludes visits related to Covid-19 testing or exposure with no mention of symptoms.

Since number of visits can be affected by facilities beginning to report or not sending reports on a given day, we present the percent of visits related to COVID to understand the burden of ED visits related to these conditions.

Measures

The line plot shows the weekly percent of all ED visits within the state that were for COVID (COVID visits/total ED visits) by the Monday starting the week, split by age group. Visits from patients of unknown age are excluded. To focus on particular age groups, click on the legend to remove unneeded lines.

County-level data are provided in a table with columns defined below. County refers to each patient’s county of residence. Data from persons of unknown age or unknown county are included in this table. The “Statewide” row combines all data collected within Georgia.

• ED visits: The total number of ED visits among county residents during the specified date range.
• Daily COVID visits: Daily number of all ED visits that were for COVID for the previous 30 days. This number can be affected by facilities changing reporting practices.
• % COVID visits: % of all ED visits that were for COVID (COVID visits/total ED visits) during the specified time period. Consecutive time periods are presented to see the trend over a 14-day period. % COVID visits is not calculated if there were <5 COVID visits during the specified time period.