Sixteen people in Northwest Georgia died from COVID-19 in the month of August, according to the latest round of numbers released on Wednesday of this week by the Georgia Department of Public Health.

The area continues to be regarded by the CDC as a area with high community transmission of the coronavirus.

In all there were 3,218 new cases in Northwest Georgia during the month of August and 976 of those cases were reported in the last seven days.  There were sixteen deaths in Floyd, Bartow, Gordon, Polk and Chattooga Counties.  Six deaths have been reported over the past week – including one in Chattooga.

The overall number of COVID-19 cases in Chattooga County did go down over the past week.  The previous week there were 57 cases and this week there were 22 cases.