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Riding the COVID-19 numbers wave is sort of like riding a roller coaster.  There have been several peaks —we’d say three major ones — and many valleys, some lower than others. In all three peaks, we’ve had more than 50 cases per day in Troup County. The first was in the summer of 2020, followed by the holiday weeks in December 2020/January 2021 and again in August.

Thankfully, each peak has been followed by a huge dip. Believe it or not, at one point in June, we were averaging about one case of COVID-19 per day.

We’re getting down to that point once again. As of Friday, the seven-day moving average in Troup County was only six cases per day.

Don’t take a deep breath yet, as this virus has been so unpredictable, with so many variants, and every time it appears we’re moving the right direction, it feels like something else hits us.

By no means do the low numbers mean we are completely out of the woods. In fact, we’d argue we are far from it.

We can hope that we’re not even near the bottom of this current fall, which has seen cases go from a 70-day moving average to the single digits.

Perhaps, we’ll get down to one or zero again soon.

Maybe one day it’ll stay there, and we can all get back to completely normal again.

There’s more good news too.

Troup County is up to 40 percent of residents receiving at least one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine and 36% are fully vaccinated. Those numbers continue to rise slowly.

We’re sure there’s a direct correlation between cases dropping and the number of vaccinated individuals increasing.

It’s very unlikely, but maybe this will be the final up and down of this wild ride.