Covid-19 in northwest Georgia

Active cases and testing are declining in Georgia, but not as much in northwest Georgia.

Investigation.

Several months into the coronavirus pandemic, georgia has some of the highest covid-19 cases in the u-s.

News 12's joeli poole explains why.

The state of georgia currently has over 300 thousand active cases and north georgia health officials say that a combined total of 14,270 cases come from the counties of whitfield, pickens, murray, gilmer, fannin and cherokee..

It currently ranks #4 in the nation for the highest number of active cases.

Sherry gregory "we saw our biggest increases in july.

It has settled down quite a bit.

We are not seeing as many people testing at our facilities that we have in the past.

As we continue to decline on testing we are still seeing a lot of positivity out there."

Health officials say that during the month of september they averaged 95 positive coronavirus cases a day and that october's early numbers are already climbing.

Throughout the pandemic, governor kemp has made it clear that he will not be mandating the wearing of masks.

Governor kemp "i'm asking georgians to do their part.

After all it is the community that defeats this virus, not the government."

The north georgia health officials say it's remained a challenge throughout the pandemic to get people to cooperate with the guidelines.

Gregory "one of the biggest issues now is that people are so "covid fatigued".

It's still quite a challenge to continue to give those instructions and people are so tired of hearing it.

We feel it too, but it's not going away, it's still here."

In georgia, joeli poole, news 12 now.

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