Peach Tree Times

The Georgia Department of Public Health recently announced the dramatic uptick of COVID-19 cases for the state.

The weekly average for new coronavirus cases in Georgia is approaching 9,000, according to GDPH data.

"The bad news is that Omicron is driving cases skyward in multiple parts of the country, including Georgia," Dr. Amber Schmidtke told Fox 5 Atlanta.

As of Dec. 27, the states' hospitalizations have increased over 50% in approximately one week, and 18 area hospitals have turned away passengers arriving in ambulances, with only 10 hospital emergency rooms accepting them, Fox 5 Atlanta reported. The demand for testing is also sharply on the rise.

Georgia continues to rank 46th in the U.S. for percentage of people up to date with their vaccinations, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

"Hospitalizations are not rising as rapidly as previous surges," Dr. Danny Branstetter, director of infection prevention for the 10-hospital Wellstar Health System, told U.S. News. "However, hospitalization is a lag from new diagnosis of infection. So we may see hospitalization start to increase in the next week or so, hopefully not to the same exponential rate."

In a hospital district that includes Cobb, Cherokee, Douglas and Paulding counties, COVID-19 patients made up almost a quarter of all patients in the hospital district including Cobb, Cherokee, Douglas and Paulding counties, Fox 5 Atlanta reported.