Nine of the 10 counties in the Northeast Health District added at least one confirmed case of COVID-19 in the 24-hours ending at noon on Thursday, and the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report showed the district as a whole adding 33 new cases.
Those 33 cases compare with 32 a day earlier and 27 on Thursday of last week. The seven-day rolling average of added cases rose from 23.0 to 23.9.
Watkinsville Mayor and Council last week, in three separate actions, moved the Wire Park project--on just less than 67 acres formerly occupied by the Southwire manufacturing plant on Barnett Shoals Road--closer to reality.
The Council voted in a virtual session to annex just less than six acres outside the city limits into the city, rezone just more than 41 acres for mixed use and office space and a little more than 25 acres for detached residential development, and allocate residential sewer capacity for the project.
The Northeast Health District of the Georgia Department of Public Health added 32 cases of confirmed COVID-19 at noon on Wednesday, down from the 33 cases added a day earlier but up from the 24 cases added on Wednesday of last week.
The seven-day rolling average of added COVID-19 cases for the 10-county Northeast Health District, which includes Oconee and Clarke counties, increased for the second day in a row, to 23.0 cases, up from 21.9 on Tuesday and 20.6 on Monday.
Clarke County added 17 new cases of confirmed COVID-19 in the 24-hour period ending at noon on Monday, while Walton County added seven cases, Barrow County added five cases, and Oconee and Jackson counties each added two cases.
The 10-county Northeast Health District of the Georgia Department of Public Health added 33 cases with the noon Daily Status Report on Tuesday, up from the 12 added on Monday and from the 24 added on Tuesday a week ago.
The Northeast Health District added 12 cases of confirmed COVID-19 with the noon Daily Status Report on Monday, with all of the six counties in the region that lost cases in the noon Daily Status Report on Sunday adding cases on Monday.
Clarke, Jackson, and Oglethorpe counties added the same number of cases on Monday as they had lost on Sunday. Oconee County had lost two cases on Sunday and added three on Monday, bringing the number of confirmed cases to 56.
The wish list for the 2021 Oconee County Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax is a long and expensive one, including $21.5 million for road projects and $18.8 million for water and sewer facilities.
The total request before the Board of Commissioners is for just less than $78.5 million.
The Georgia Department of Public Health in its noon Daily Status Report on Sunday removed or reassigned 14 confirmed COVID-19 cases allocated to six of the counties in the Northeast Health District at noon on Saturday and added 11 cases to the remaining four.
The Daily Status Report offered no explanation for the changes in the cumulative figures. The Department of Public Health also has refused to explain how it assigns cases to counties.
The Northeast Health District of the Georgia Department of Health added 26 new cases with the noon Daily Status Report on Saturday as each of the 10 counties in the district added at least one case except for Clarke and Morgan counties.
Oconee County added a single case, while bordering Walton County added nine cases and Oglethrope County added seven cases.
Nine of the 10 counties in the Northeast Health District of the Georgia Department of Public Health added confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the noon Daily Status Report for Friday, bringing the total number of cases to 595.
The 34 new cases were up from the 27 added at noon on Thursday, but down from the 38 cases added on Friday a week ago.
Oconee County had its third straight day on Thursday without a new confirmed case of COVID-19 added in the noon Daily Status Report of the Georgia Department of Public Health. The county has 53 confirmed cases.
Clarke County added three cases, and the 10-county Northeast Health District as a whole added 27 cases, up from 24 added in the noon Daily Status Report on Wednesday.
The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District, which includes Oconee and Clarke counties, increased by 24 in the Wednesday noon Daily Status Report of the Georgia Department of Public Health.
The Wednesday increase is the same number as was shown from Monday to the noon Daily Status Report on Tuesday.
The ongoing dispute between the Board of Education and the Board of Commissioners took a dramatic turn on Monday with the remotely connected, but live streamed, meeting of the Board of Education.
After allowing Board of Commissioners Chair John Daniell to speak for six minutes as a registered outside speaker, the School Board, led by Board Member Tim Burgess, spent 29 minutes responding critically.
Clarke County added four new COVID-19 cases on Monday, Oconee County added three, and Barrow County added nine, contributing to an increase of 24 cases over a day earlier in the Northeast Health District of the Department of Public Health.
The increase of 24 is lower than the 36 cases added on Tuesday of last week but higher than the 13 cases added on Monday. Only Morgan and Elbert counties in the 10-county district did not add cases.
Last week’s virtual Board of Commissioners Town Hall meeting was billed as focusing on two topics, the 2021 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax referendum being planned for the Nov. 3 ballot and roadway improvements on Malcom Bridge Road.
The commissioners, as is usual, also took questions from the audience.
The Georgia Department of Public Health reported 13 new cases of confirmed COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District in its noon Daily Status Report on Monday, up from the count of 11 added on Sunday and the same number of cases it added on Monday a week ago.
The Daily Status report numbers vary by day of the week, and in each of the last three days–Saturday, Sunday and Monday–the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases was the same as the number on that day a week ago.
Claire Buck, chief academic officer for Oconee County Schools, told Board of Education members last Monday that the closure of the county schools on March 16 did not catch administrators and teachers without a plan.
In the first remote, live streamed meeting held by the Board, Buck said that the school system starting making changes to its Plan for Continuity of Learning In The Event of Inclement Weather on March 13 and was prepared when the schools moved to digital learning on March 16 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Oconee and Clarke counties each add two new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the noon Daily Status Report released Sunday by the Georgia Department of Public Health, contributing to the 11 new cases added in the 10-county Northeast Health District.
The 11 new cases are the same number as the Northeast Health District added a week ago–on Easter Sunday–and are an increase over the seven new cases added in the noon Daily Status Report on Saturday.
The Northeast Health District, which includes Oconee and Clarke counties, added only seven new confirmed cases of COVID-19 with the noon Daily Status Report of the Georgia Department of Public Health on Saturday.
The seven cases compare with the 38 added on Friday and the 37 added on Thursday.
Atlanta attorney Adam M. Sparks last week sent a letter to Gov. Brian Kemp on behalf of Athens Attorney Deborah Gonzalez urging Kemp to appoint a District Attorney for the Western Judicial Circuit before May 3, thus assuring that an election for the open District Attorney office will be held on Nov. 3.
Sparks, with the law firm of Krevolin & Horst, told Kemp that “Waiting beyond May 3 would deprive voters and candidates alike of their First Amendment rights” under the U.S. Constitution.
The state of Georgia recorded 1,525 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the 24-hour-period that ended at noon on Friday, the largest number of new cases ever recorded in the Department of Public Health’s Daily Status Report.
The 10-county Northeast Health District, which includes Oconee and Clarke County, recorded 38 new cases on Friday, the second largest number of new cases listed for the region in the Daily Status Report.
The Georgia Northeast Health District added 37 new cases of confirmed cases of COVID-19 with the noon Daily Status Report of the Department of Health on Thursday, bringing the number of cases added in the last three days to just fewer than 100.
The three days of large number of new cases in the region, which includes Oconee and Clarke counties, follows three days in which the number of reported cases had been low.
Jon Ossoff told Oconee County Democratic Party members last month that one of the things that distinguishes him from the other candidates for the Democraticy Party nomination for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Republican David Perdue is his convictions and values.
Ossoff is CEO of Insight TWI (TheWorldInvestigates), an investigative journalism organization that produces programs for television companies around the world.
The number of COVID-19 confirmed cases on Wednesday increased by 25 in the 10-county Northeast Health District, and, with a death of an 87-year-old male with known underlying conditions in Walton County, the number of deaths increased by one.
Oconee County added two new confirmed cases with the noon Daily Status Report of the Georgia Department of Public Health on Wednesday, and Clarke County added three.
The Georgia Department of Public Health with its noon Daily Status Report on Tuesday listed 36 new cases of confirmed COVID-19 in the 10-county Northeast Health District and one additional death–in Clarke County--attributable to the disease.
The increase of 36 cases was the largest increase since the 46 cases were added on Tuesday a week ago and the 36 were added on March 31, two weeks ago. The total number of cases in the region now stands at 355.
The Northeast Health District added 13 new confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Georgia Department of Public Health noon Daily Status Report on Monday, including the addition of two cases in Clarke County, one in Oconee, five in Walton County, and four in Green County.
The noon Monday report listed no new deaths in the region.
Georgia’s Northeast Health District, which includes Oconee and Clarke counties, added 11 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 with the noon Daily Status Report of the Department of Public Health on Sunday.
Those 11 cases are up from seven added in the noon Daily Status Report on Saturday but down dramatically from the 27 added on Friday and the 46 added on April 7. Included are two new cases in Oconee County and one in Clarke County.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners agreed on Tuesday, in a brief meeting closed to the public except through live-streaming because of the COVID-19 pandemic, to two contracts totaling $3.1 million for a new elevated water storage tank and pressure valves to improve water pressure in the Watkinsville area.
The Board approved a bid of $2,475,000 with Caldwell Tank Inc., of Louisville, Ky., for construction of the 750,000-gallon elevated water tank at the intersection of the US. 441 Bypass and Macon Highway (South Main Street).
The sole death in Oconee County attributed to COVID-19 by the Georgia Department of Public Health has been eliminated as of the noon Daily Status Report on Saturday.
The number of deaths in Clarke County increased by one in that same noon Saturday report, with an 85-year-old male without known underlying conditions added to the Clarke County total, now of 11 cases.
The Northeast Health District, which includes Oconee and Clarke counties, added 27 new COVID-19 cases in the 24-hour-period ending at noon on Friday, the largest number of added cases since the 46 added on Tuesday.
Oconee County added two new cases, and Oglethorpe County added nine new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the 24-hour-period.
The Georgia Department of Public Health in its noon Daily Status Report for Thursday listed nine deaths for Clarke County despite the announcement by an Athens nursing home operator Wednesday that 10 of its residents who had “previously tested presumptive positive for COVID-19" had passed away “in the past few weeks.”
The Daily Status Report listed Clarke County as having its first COVID-19 death on March 24 (or a little more than two weeks ago), seven deaths attributable to COVID-19 on April 2, eight on April 3, and nine first on April 7.
Sara Tindall Ghazal, former voter protection director for the Georgia Democratic Party, and Rev. James Woodall, president of the Georgia NAACP, participating in a virtual Town Hall meeting last week, urged Georgia voters to apply for an absentee ballot for the May 19 election.
Voters should fill out the application sent to all active, registered voters in the state by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the two said, as a safe way to vote as the COVID-19 pandemic plays out in the state.
UPDATE: Raffensperger on Thursday morning moved the primary back to June 9.
The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the 10-county Northeast Health District of Georgia grew by 16 in the 24-hour period ending at noon on Wednesday, down from the increase of 46 cases in the 24-hour period ending at noon on Tuesday.
The number of deaths in the Northeast Health District increased by only one during that time period, reflecting the first death attributable to the disease in Oconee County, picked up in the 7 p.m. Daily Status Report from Tuesday.
The Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration on Tuesday officially approved a call for a special election to fill the Post 3 vacancy on the Board of Commissioners.
The election will be held in November without a primary, meaning that qualified candidates will have the chance to pick a party label, and more than one candidate can run with the same label.
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases increased greatly in Oconee County and the Northeast Georgia region on Tuesday, reflecting the dramatic increase across the state in the noon Daily Status Report from the Georgia Department of Health.
The report shows Oconee County with 32 confirmed cases, up from 24 at noon on Monday, and Clarke County with 77, up from 69 at noon on Monday.
The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the 10-county Northeast Health District of Georgia increased by 22 in the 24-hour period ending at noon on Monday, and the number of cases in the state during that time period increased by 667.
Oconee County is part of the Northeast Health District, but it saw no increase in cases during the 24-hour period, but Clarke County had an increase of seven cases, Barrow County had an increase of two cases, and Walton County had an increase of four cases.
Oconee, Clarke, Barrow, Walton and Jackson counties all added new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the 24-hour period that ended at noon on Sunday, and Walton County counted its first death attributable to the disease.
The total number of cases in Oconee County in the noon Daily Status Report from the Georgia Department of Health was 24. It was 62 in Clarke County and 25 in Barrow County.
The Oconee County Industrial Development Authority, in a called meeting on Thursday morning, approved the sale of just under 25 acres from the eastern tract of the Gateway Technology and Business Park to Taylors Iron Company of Watkinsville.
Taylor’s Iron Company currently is located at 1081 Industrial Drive in the Watkinsville Industrial Park and will use the Gateway location as a new site of operations.
Oconee and Clarke counties each added three confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the 24-hour-period ending at noon on Saturday, according to the Georgia Department of Health Daily Status Report.
The 10-county Northeast Health District of the Department of Health that includes Oconee and Clarke counties added 13 confirmed cases in the 24-hour-period, and Georgia as a whole added 329 cases.
Clarke County added one new death as a result of COVID-19 in the noon Daily Status Report for Friday, bringing the total deaths in the 10-county Northeast Health District of the Georgia Department of Health to 12.
The death was of a 98-year-old male with underlying conditions.
Elbert County, the sole county in the region without a confirmed COVID-19 case, added a single case in the 24 hour period from noon of Thursday to noon of Friday.
COVID-19 both altered the physical arrangement of the agenda-setting meeting of the Oconee County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday and dominated its content.
The Commissioners were spread around the Commission Chamber at the Courthouse, rather than seated at their usual places at the front of the room.
Oconee County added another confirmed COVID-19 case in the 24 hours ending at noon today, while Clarke County added three, Walton and Jackson counties each added two, and Madison County added one.
The state of Georgia added 710 new cases of confirmed COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, the third highest increase on a day-to-day basis since the first case was reported on March 2.
Oconee County added three new confirmed COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours and six in the last 48 hours, representing the largest two-day growth in cases in the county since the Georgia Department of Public Health began its Daily Status Reports on March 12.
Clarke County added a single case from noon of yesterday until the release of the Daily Status Report at noon today, and Barrow County added two cases.
