Pandemic numbers in Fayette in a long wind-down —
All 5 of Fayette County’s high schools plan fully in-person graduation ceremonies May 28, the first such sign of widespread normalcy in 15 months.
That comes after only 13 new Covid-19 cases were reported in 7 of Fayette’s 24 schools last week. That means 17 of the county’s schools were Covid free. Worst hit was Minter Elementary with 7 of the 13 total cases.
Fayette County’s Covid-19 infection picture is the brightest it’s been since early October, 2020, with fewer than 2 tests out of every 100 tests given coming back as confirmed cases of the coronavirus, according to data from the Georgia Department of Public Health May 18.
Nearly 50,000 Fayette residents have received at least one shot of the Covid vaccine — that’s 44% of the county’s total population, DPH reported Tuesday. At least 37% of the county’s population has been fully vaccinated, DPH reported.
The pandemic seems to be loosening its grip on Fayette and the rest of Georgia, DPH data shows. The state has reported fewer than 500 new daily cases across Georgia the past 4 days, a level unseen in 7 months.
In Fayette, only one fatality attributed to Covid has occurred since the beginning of May — a white male, age 79 on May 11. That brought the pandemic death toll for Fayette to 154 residents.
During that same period of 18 days, only 9 Fayette residents have been hospitalized for treatment of Covid since May 1. The pandemic total so far is 266 residents, DPH reported.
Fayette has counted 110 new Covid cases since May 1, an average of about 6 new cases a day.
The 2-week rolling average of new cases has dropped to below 3% of all persons tested for the entire month of May. That closely watched signal of a declining pandemic has been below 2% for the past 10 days.
Perhaps the most positive graph available this week is the count of Covid hospital cases across the state, which shows under 6% of all patients as positive for the virus.
