According to the Georgia Department of Public Health, the state is seeing a surge in Covid-19 infections, with the numbers close to the highest on record since January. Most infections are linked to the Delta variant, a highly contagious strain of the virus that has been linked to a surge in infections globally. Georgia health officials say that as many as 9 in 10 infections are linked to the Delta variant. The state has also recorded the highest weekly totals in infections since the start of the pandemic, and many counties have now been designated “red zones”. Some counties like Gwinnett County have seen huge spikes in infections.
Georgia Department of Public Health officials report that the majority of new infections consist of unvaccinated people. George residents who are not vaccinated form the majority of all hospitalizations and deaths related to Covid -19. As of now, only about 42 percent of Georgians are fully vaccinated, having received both doses of the vaccine. That makes more than half of the population still highly vulnerable to this extremely contagious variant of the virus. Another feature of this new phase of the pandemic is the risk to children.
It is now imperative that residents get vaccinated as quickly as they can. At this point, our state is one of only 11 states with vaccination rates below the 50 percent mark. Get yourself vaccinated, and make sure that your family members get both the shots at the stipulated times too.