The director of the Northwest Georgia Public Health office said that as he’s watching the number of COVID-19 cases continue to rise across the region, “this is a very worrisome time.”

The Rome News Tribune reports that the hospitals in Rome reported 29 people hospitalized with the coronavirus Thursday, a number that has been increasing daily.

Dr. Gary Voccio said there is no doubt that the increase in hospitalizations, and positive test results, has occurred due to the rapid spread of the Delta variant. He said the spread has occurred almost exclusively among people who have not been vaccinated.

The Northwest Georgia Health Department Region consists of  Floyd, Bartow, Gordon, Catoosa, Chattooga, Walker, Dade, Haralson, Paulding and Polk counties — and all are experiencing a positivity rate of 11.2%.  Dr. Voccio said that last month the region was down to 2% positivity rate.  In general, a low positivity rate is considered a good sign. The lower the number, the better the indicator that enough people are getting tested to determine the actual spread of the virus.

According to the latest information from the Georgia Department of Public Health, both Chattooga County and Walker County are considered “high transmission” counties and have a high number of new positive cases.  Over the past two weeks, Chattooga County has reported 51 new cases of people testing positive for COVID-19 and Walker County has seen 149 new positive cases.