The COVID Report with David Blake: 18-29 age group sees increase in infections

Thursday, Sept. 3

In my last blog post, we showed how college students in dorms are spiking infection rates in the counties in which they reside. I made a plot of the age demographics of infection in Georgia to show the impact these dorm situations are having on infections. https://aubellringer.wordpress.com/2020/09/01/the-covid-report-with-david-blake-college-outbreaks/#more-9584

The 18-29 age group is having a large increase in their share of the infections. On first glance, this may not seem so bad, the 18-29 age group rarely become inpatients and rarely have serious complications.

However, they do continue to transmit infections. These changes, also, only show the people who voluntarily tested.

Because that age group has a much higher proportion of asymptomatics who spread, according to the CDC, 75% as well as people with symptoms, the problems from this age group are larger than they appear in confirmed cases.

With certainty, these increases will make their ways to other age groups. How it will impact the overall case and fatality numbers for the state are still a little uncertain.