Stephens County has higher virus rate than larger counties

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  • Stephens County had 73 positive COVID-19 cases for a rate of 280.9 cases per 100,000 residents.
    Stephens County had 73 positive COVID-19 cases for a rate of 280.9 cases per 100,000 residents.
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By Tom Law
The Toccoa Record


    Stephens County has a higher rate of positive COVID-19 cases than the mostly highly populated county in Georgia. According to the state Department of Health, as of Tuesday, Stephens County had 73 positive COVID-19 cases for a rate of 280.9 cases per 100,000 residents. That compares to Fulton County with a total of 2,680 cases for a rate of 246.5 cases per 100,000 residents.

    Stephens has some 26,000 residents while the population of Fulton County, the state’s largest by population, is about 1.1 million. The Stephens rate is higher than many larger counties. Here are some selected comparisons among Georgia’s 159 counties.

    • Gwinnett, 1,545 cases for a rate of 159.8 per 100,000 residents.
    • Rabun, 10 cases for a rate of 60.7 per 100,000 residents.
    • Chatham (Savannah) 208 total cases for a rate of 69.1 per 100,000 residents.
    

Stephens has a lower rate than many Georgia counties. Here’s how Stephens stacks up against some selected counties:

    • Hall (Gainesville), 1,098 total cases for a rate of 530.1 cases per 100,000 residents, the highest in the northeast Georgia area.
    • Dougherty (Albany), 1,480 total cases for a rate of 1,584 per 100,000.
    • Habersham, 193 total cases for a rate of 419.3  per 100,000 residents.
    Habersham’s per 100,000 rate is the second highest in northeast Georgia.