Introduction


The data in this report can be used to assess the extent of COVID-19 community transmission and recent trends by county. Click on the above tabs to see statewide and county level data about COVID-19 cases, laboratory testing data, and emergency department visit trends. Click on the Emerging Counties tab to see a map of counties with increasing COVID-19 indicators and to see a summary of those indicators. Click on the High Transmission Counties tab to see a map of counties with high levels of COVID-19 and to see a summary of those indicators. Click on the Supplemental Maps tab to see maps of various COVID-19 indicators. See the data description below for an explanation of the data in each tab. This report is updated weekly.

Due to variations in the availability of testing, test-seeking behavior, local outbreaks, and widespread testing in congregate living settings, these data may not accurately represent true community transmission and should be considered with additional factors affecting the community in consultation with District Public Health, who can provide more guidance about the scenario in your county.

Please consult additional resources to understand trends and other factors affecting your county.

Note: Some data may not be displayed correctly using Internet Explorer. Use another browser if that’s the case.


Cases

Click on the Confirmed Case or Probable Case tab to view confirmed or probable cases. A confirmed case is an individual with a positive molecular (PCR) test. A probable case meets at least one of the following criteria: has a positive antigen test on a respiratory specimen; OR has not had a confirmatory COVID-19 test but has symptoms compatible with COVID-19 AND a known exposure to a COVID-19 case; OR the individual has died and the death certificate lists COVID-19 disease or SARS-CoV-2 as an underlying cause of death or a significant condition contributing to death.

Source

Cases reported to DPH. Cases may be reported through multiple sources including electronic lab reporting (ELR), entered directly into the State Electronic Notifiable Disease Surveillance System (SendSS), faxed case reports, and calls from providers to DPH. People may have multiple tests performed but each person is counted only once, even if they have multiple positive tests. Cases are counted according to county of residence.

Measures

Confirmed Cases Tab

  • 30-day average daily cases: Daily average (average of the previous 7 days) confirmed cases reported for the previous 30 days (09/03/2020 - 10/02/2020). Date represents the date the case was reported to DPH.
  • Confirmed cases to date: All confirmed cases reported to DPH from 02/01/2020 - 10/02/2020.
  • Confirmed cases (date range): All confirmed cases reported to DPH during the specified date range.
  • 14-day confirmed case rate (per 100k): 14-day case count/100K residents based on 2018 census data. Rates are not calculated if there were <5 cases reported during this period.

Probable Cases Tab

  • Probable cases to date: All probable cases reported to DPH from 02/01/2020 - 10/02/2020.
  • All cases to date: All probable and confirmed cases reported to DPH from 02/01/2020 - 10/02/2020.
  • All case rate (per 100k): confirmed and probable case count/100K residents based on 2018 census data.

Laboratory Tests

Source

Molecular (PCR) test results reported to DPH through ELR only, not all reporting sources, therefore these data do not represent all tests performed in Georgia. ELR reports include both positive and negative results; other reporting sources do not consistently report negative results. People with a positive test often get retested and may test positive multiple times. These repeat positive tests will be counted as new positive tests, but they will not be reported as new cases. County represents county of residence. The date reflects the date the specimen was collected. The most recent data analyzed begins 3 days prior to the date of this report due to delays in reporting.

Measures

  • 30-day average daily PCR % Positive: Daily average (average of the previous 7 days) % of reported PCR tests that were positive (positive PCR tests/total PCR tests) for the previous 30 days (09/03/2020 - 10/02/2020). Date represents the date the specimen was collected.
  • Number of PCR tests performed: Total PCR tests performed and reported to DPH by ELR, by day during the previous 30 days.
  • PCR % Positive: % of all reported PCR tests that were positive (positive PCR tests/total PCR tests) during the specified time period. Consecutive weeks are presented to see the trend during the 14-day period. Due to reporting lags, this number may change over time if a laboratory is delayed in reporting results. % positive is not calculated if there were <10 tests during a 7-day period or <20 tests during a 14-day period.

Emergency Department Visits

Source

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. For the purpose of this report, the Influenza Like Illness (ILI) and Covid-19 (COVID) syndromes were used to analyze trends in ED visits potentially related to COVID-19. County represents county of residence. The most recent data analyzed begins 3 days prior to the date of this report due to delays in reporting.

  • ILI Syndrome identifies ED visits that present for symptoms of respiratory or influenza like illness and includes: Chief complaint text for fever, influenza, RSV, viral infection, viral pneumonia, cough (if fever), or sore throat (if fever). Note that ILI does not distinguish between visits for COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses.
  • COVID Syndrome identifies ED visits that refer to COVID-19 and includes: Chief complaint text for “coronavirus”, “covid”, “c-19”, or “ncov”. 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.

Additional notes: 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. Date represents the ED visit date. Criteria for syndromes are subject to change as additional information is received.

Measures

  • ED visits: The total number of ED visits among county residents during the specified date range. This number can be affected by facilities beginning to report or not sending reports on a given day, therefore we present % of visits related to COVID or ILI to understand the burden of ED visits related to these conditions.
  • Daily ILI visits: Daily number of all ED visits that were for ILI for the previous 30 days (09/03/2020 - 10/02/2020). This number can be affected by facilities changing reporting practices.
  • % ILI visits: % of all ED visits that were for ILI (ILI visits/total ED visits) during the specified time period. Consecutive weeks are presented to see the trend during the 14-day period. % ILI visits is not calculated if there are <5 visits during the 14-day period.
  • Daily COVID visits: Daily COVID visits: Daily number of all ED visits that were for COVID for the previous 30 days (09/03/2020 - 10/02/2020). 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 weeks are presented to see the trend during the 14-day period. % COVID visits is not calculated if there are <5 visits during the 14-day period.

Emerging County of Interest

An Emerging county of interest is defined as a county that meets the below criteria. An emerging county of interest warrants further investigation to understand the cause of the recent increase in cases, and determine whether immediate public health intervention is needed, if not already initiated.

  • Criteria: Comparing the current week (most recent 7 days) to the previous week >5% increase in COVID syndrome or ILI syndrome (if ≥5 visits) AND >5% increase in cases (if ≥5 cases), OR >25% change in cases AND >10 cases during most recent week.
  • Summary Table: Summarizes if counties meet each indicator in the above criteria.

High Transmission Counties

A county with high transmission indicators is defined as a county that meets the below criteria. These counties have high rates of new COVID-19 cases and a high % of positive PCR tests, indicating that that the virus may be circulating widely in the county.

  • Criteria: 14-day cases rate is >100 cases/100,000 county residents (>5 cases during this period) AND 14-day average % positive PCR tests >10% (>20 total tests performed during this period).
  • Summary Table: Summarizes if counties meet each indicator in the above criteria.

Supplemental Maps

  • 14-Day Case Rate Category: Based on the 14-day case rate.
    • High: >100 cases/100K
    • Moderately high: >50-100 cases/100K
    • Moderate: >10-50 cases/100K
    • Low: >0-10 cases/100K
    • Less than 5 cases reported, rate not calculated
  • Confirmed COVID-19 Cases: Reflects the % change in case counts during the specified date range, comparing the second 7-day period to the first 7-day period.
    • Increasing: 5% or greater change
    • Decreasing: -5% or greater change
    • Less than 5% change
    • Less than 5 cases reported, not calculated
  • PCR % Positive Category: Reflects the % PCR positive category based on the PCR % positive during the specified date range (14 days).
    • High: > 10% positive
    • Moderate: 5 - 10% positive
    • Low: <5% positive
    • Less than 20 tests in 14-day period, not calculated
  • ED Visits with COVID-19 Syndrome: Reflects the % change in ED visits with COVID-19 syndrome during the specified date range, comparing the second 7-day period to the first 7-day period.
    • Increasing: 5% or greater change
    • Decreasing: -5% or greater change
    • Less than 5% change
    • Less than 5 visits, not calculated
  • ED Visits with ILI Syndrome: Reflects the % change in ED visits with ILI syndrome during the specified date range, comparing the second 7-day period to the first 7-day period.
    • Increasing: 5% or greater change
    • Decreasing: -5% or greater change
    • Less than 5% change
    • Less than 5 visits, not calculated

Statistical Software used

This report was produced using R version 3.6.1 (2019-07-05).

R Core Team (2019). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. URL https://www.R-project.org/.

With the following packages:
package
scales Hadley Wickham and Dana Seidel (2019). scales: Scale Functions for Visualization. R package version 1.1.0. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=scales
sf Pebesma, E., 2018. Simple Features for R: Standardized Support for Spatial Vector Data. The R Journal 10 (1), 439-446, https://doi.org/10.32614/RJ-2018-009
kableExtra Hao Zhu (2019). kableExtra: Construct Complex Table with ‘kable’ and Pipe Syntax. R package version 1.1.0. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=kableExtra
rio Chung-hong Chan, Geoffrey CH Chan, Thomas J. Leeper, and Jason Becker (2018). rio: A Swiss-army knife for data file I/O. R package version 0.5.16.
here Kirill Müller (2017). here: A Simpler Way to Find Your Files. R package version 0.1. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=here
runner Dawid Kaledkowski (2020). runner: Running Operations for Vectors. R package version 0.3.7. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=runner
glue Jim Hester (2019). glue: Interpreted String Literals. R package version 1.3.1. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=glue
lubridate Garrett Grolemund, Hadley Wickham (2011). Dates and Times Made Easy with lubridate. Journal of Statistical Software, 40(3), 1-25. URL http://www.jstatsoft.org/v40/i03/.
forcats Hadley Wickham (2019). forcats: Tools for Working with Categorical Variables (Factors). R package version 0.4.0. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=forcats
stringr Hadley Wickham (2019). stringr: Simple, Consistent Wrappers for Common String Operations. R package version 1.4.0. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=stringr
dplyr Hadley Wickham, Romain François, Lionel Henry and Kirill Müller (2020). dplyr: A Grammar of Data Manipulation. R package version 0.8.4. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=dplyr
purrr Lionel Henry and Hadley Wickham (2019). purrr: Functional Programming Tools. R package version 0.3.3. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=purrr
readr Hadley Wickham, Jim Hester and Romain Francois (2018). readr: Read Rectangular Text Data. R package version 1.3.1. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=readr
tidyr Hadley Wickham and Lionel Henry (2020). tidyr: Tidy Messy Data. R package version 1.0.2. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=tidyr
tibble Kirill Müller and Hadley Wickham (2019). tibble: Simple Data Frames. R package version 2.1.3. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=tibble
ggplot2 H. Wickham. ggplot2: Elegant Graphics for Data Analysis. Springer-Verlag New York, 2016.
tidyverse Wickham et al., (2019). Welcome to the tidyverse. Journal of Open Source Software, 4(43), 1686, https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.01686
sparkline Ramnath Vaidyanathan, Kent Russell and Gareth Watts (2016). sparkline: ‘jQuery’ Sparkline ‘htmlwidget’. R package version 2.0. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=sparkline
DT Yihui Xie, Joe Cheng and Xianying Tan (2020). DT: A Wrapper of the JavaScript Library ‘DataTables’. R package version 0.15. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=DT
flexdashboard Richard Iannone, JJ Allaire and Barbara Borges (2020). flexdashboard: R Markdown Format for Flexible Dashboards. R package version 0.5.2. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=flexdashboard

Cases

last updated: 10/05/2020

All cases date range: 02/01/2020 - 10/02/2020
30-day date range: 09/03/2020 - 10/02/2020
14-day date range: 09/19/2020 - 10/02/2020
metric descriptions

Row

Confirmed Cases

Probable Cases

Laboratory Tests

text

last updated: 10/05/2020

30-day date range: 09/03/2020 - 10/02/2020
metric descriptions

table

Emergency Department Visits

text

last updated: 10/05/2020

30-day date range: 09/03/2020 - 10/02/2020
metric descriptions

table

Emerging Counties

Row

Emerging Counties Map

Summary Table

High Transmission Counties

Row

High Transmission Counties Map

Summary Table

Supplemental Maps

Row

14-Day Case Rate Category

Confirmed COVID-19 Cases

PCR % Positive Category

ED Visits with COVID-19 Syndrome

ED Visits with ILI Syndrome