A third death from COVID-19 is now official according to the daily report from the Georgia Department of Public Health, with eight new positives for the virus also part of the latest information released this afternoon on tracking the novel coronavirus around the state.

The July 22 report only included that the death was that of a 59-year-old woman. The second death reported on July 18 was that of an 84-year-old male. Polk County’s first death from the virus came in May, and was that of a 67-year-old male.

With today’s latest death, it marks the second in just the past five days reported by the Georgia Department of Public Health. Polk County went through March and April without any reported deaths while neighboring counties saw several, and remains lower than the rest of the area overall. Haralson County by comparison has twice the number (6) of deaths currently.

The additional eight new positives for the virus in Polk brings the overall tally since tracking began to 439 positives.

Statewide, the tally grew by another 3,314 according to the latest report to 152,302 positives overall since late February. The latest numbers also saw hospitalizations increase by another 428 patients overnight to 15,922 overall who have required medical treatment for COVID-19, and out of that overall figure some 2,967 patients have needed ICU care.

Sadly, 81 new deaths were included in the tally for the day to bring the number to 3,335 since COVID-19 began to spread through the state.

As of today, 10.5% of people in Georgia have tested positive overall out oft he more than 1.3 million tests conducted since late February.

Regionally, Bartow remained at the top with the number of cases now at 1,214 positives overall, an increase of another 42 cases over the past 24 hours. That included one new hospitalization now at 177 total, and a new death to bring the count to 50.

Paudling is now not far behind their neighbor to the north in total cases. They added another 30 positives in the past day to bring the total to 1,110, and also added two new hospital cases to bring the total to 117, and a new death at 18.

Floyd County’s total increased to 905 with 16 new positives, but remained at 61 hospitalizations and 15 deaths. Haralson also only saw a case increase with six new positives to rest at 142 on the day, and remained at 18 hospitalizations overall and six deaths.

COVID-19 continues to grow on the national level with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention putting the figure at 63,028 new cases, which now totals 3,882,167 positives for the virus since tracking began. Another 1,047 people perished due to COVID-19, with the death toll now at 141,677 across the United States.