Caption
Shoppers at the entrance to the Walmart store on Zebulon Road in Macon recently.
Credit: Grant Blankenship/GPB
Section Branding
Header Content
White House Task Force: Macon Out Of Coronavirus Red Zone
Primary Content
Macon-Bibb County has moved out of the “red zone” and into the “yellow” for coronavirus spread, according to the new White House Coronavirus Task Force report released on September 6, and shared by the Center for Public Integrity.
Macon is joined by other regional cities like Warner Robins, Milledgeville, Columbus and even the former worldwide hotspot of Albany as falling out of the zone of highest concern for the virus in the report dated September 6.
Meanwhile, the task force cautions that unchecked virus spread in college towns like Milledgeville, Athens and Statesboro threaten to undo the hard work of virus mitigation statewide.
And the task force still says Georgia as a whole is still a “red zone” state with the 12th highest coronavirus case rate in the country the majority of counties still experiencing at least moderate community transmission of the virus.
The task force defines “red zone” high levels of community transmission, with 100 new cases per 100,000 people and a test positivity rate over 10%. For “yellow” or moderate community transmission, a city or county can have between 10-100 cases per 100,000 people or a test positivity rate of between 5-10%.
According to the latest operational report from the local health department, the North Central Health District, Macon-Bibb County has a cumulative test positivity rate of 7%. Houston County has a rate of 9% while Monroe County has a rate of 6%. Elsewhere in the 13 counties covered by the health district, most counties still have positivity rates at or above 10%.
The WHO considers a positivity rate, or the proportion of people tested found to carry the virus, of 5% the minimum for adequate testing.
Macon-Bibb County’s daily new cases have dropped to a level comparable to the days before the summer surge after the July 4 holiday. That is apparent even after watching the recent data shock of around 700 positive test results released by a software glitch to the state by Navicent Health work their way through the graph of new cases.
New virus cases in Baldwin County have fallen off dramatically, too, back to about the level experienced in the days before the spike driven by the resumption of in-person classes at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville. The North Central Health District still cautions the county is experiencing substantial spread of the virus, just as it was before classes started.
The White House Task Force has advice for college towns like Milledgeville as they cope with the coronavirus. Those are to quarantine infected students on campus and to conduct surveillance testing of people not yet showing symptoms of COVID-19.
Neither recommendation is being employed at GCSU.
Secondary Content
Author
Bottom Content
