Each of the 10 counties in the Northeast Health District of the Georgia Department of Public Health except Oconee County added at least one confirmed case of COVID-19 with the Daily Status Report issued just before noon on Saturday, but Oconee County added a second death at a nursing home.
The Oconee death at the High Shoals Health and Rehabilitation nursing home in North High Shoals does not appear in Georgia Department of Public Health Daily Status Report, which does add two new deaths in the Northeast Health District in the 24-hour-period ending at 11:25 a.m. on Saturday.
Those deaths are for a 91-year-old male in Oglethorpe County with known chronic conditions and for a 72-year-old female in Walton County, also with known chronic conditions.
The new Oconee County death is reported in the late Friday Long-Term Care Facility COVID-19 Report, also issued by the Georgia Department of Public Health but based on the self-reporting of data from nursing homes and personal care homes in the state.
The 10-county Northeast Health District added 20 confirmed COVID-19 cases on Saturday, up from the 11 added on Friday. Despite the uptick on Saturday, the seven-day average of added cases dropped for the third day in a row, from 21.3 cases to 18.6 cases.
Across the state, the number of cases increased by 775 on Saturday but the seven-day-rolling average also declined for the third day in a row, from 655.4 cases per day on Friday to 623.4 cases per day on Saturday.
The Department of Public Health added 44 new deaths, bringing the total to an even 1,400, with the 11:25 a.m. Saturday Daily Status Report.
The seven-day-average of newly recorded deaths increased from 30.4 on Friday to 33.3 on Saturday.
Of those 44 new deaths, the Department of Public Health reported that 23 were for those who died in the last 14 days, while on Friday, 18 of the 21 cases added were for deaths in the last 14 days.
Oconee Deaths
The Department of Public Health issued a revised Long-Term Care Facility COVID-19 Report on April 28, again on May 1, and on May 5, May 6, May 7, and May 8.
The High Shoals Health and Rehabilitation nursing home, 3450 New High Shoals Road, was first listed on the Long-Term Care Facility Report on May 1 when it reported one COVID-19 Positive Resident and one COVID Positive Staff.
In the May 5 report, the North High Shoals nursing home reported 12 COVID Positive Residents, one death, and two COVID Positive Staff.
In the Friday Report, High Shoals Health and Rehabilitation reported 16 COVID Positive Residents, the two deaths, and two COVID Positive Staff.
The number of Northeast Health District long-term care facilities on the Friday list dropped from 16 to 15 with the loss of Oconee County's St. Mary’s Highland Hills Village, 1660 Jennings Mill Road, at the Clarke County border.
St. Mary’s had reported no deaths or COVID Positive Residents on Thursday, but it had reported a single COVID Positive Staff.
Across the state, the Friday Long-Term Care Facility Report listed 351 facilities with 26,878 residents, 4,210 of whom had a COVID-19 positive designation, or 15.7 percent. The facilities reported 672 deaths, or 16.0 percent of the listed 4,210 cases.
In the Northeast Health District, the 15 facilities listed 1,130 residents, 191 of whom had COVID-19 positive designations, or 16.9 percent. The facilities reported 31 deaths, or 16.2 percent of the 191 cases.
Discrepancies
The discrepancies between the figures in the Daily Status Report and in the Long-Term Care Facility Report have been persistent.
The Department of Public Health states in the Daily Status Report that “All those who have a lab-confirmed infection are counted as confirmed cases.”
For the Daily Status Report, deaths are the “total number of Georgia residents who are confirmed COVID-19 cases that were reported as deaths on the Person Under Investigation (PUI) to DPH.” DPH stands for Department of Public Health.
“These numbers might not reflect all deaths from COVID-19 due to challenges in attribution of the cause of death,” the Daily Status Report states.
The Long-Term Care Facilities Report states that it “includes COVID-19 activity for all licensed nursing homes, all licensed assisted living communities, and licensed personal care homes of 25 beds or more."
The facility is asked to report “The cumulative number of residents who have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus,” “The cumulative number of COVID-19 positive residents who have died,” and “The cumulative number of employees working at the facility who have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.”
Oconee County Coroner Ed Carson told me in an email message late on Friday evening “I have not been notified of these deaths” at the North High Shoals nursing home.
Carson said a registered nurse can pronounce the death in a nursing home “as long as the person has no injuries.”
Carson speculated that the nursing home “may be using the decedent’s home address prior to nursing home admissions” in recording the county of the death.
The total number of deaths in the Northeast Health District according to the Daily Status Report, with the addition of the Oglethorpe and Walton deaths on Saturday, is 37. The total number of deaths at the 15 facilities listed in the Long-Term Care Facility Report on Thursday was 31. It is at least theoretically possible that all but six of the deaths in the District were at nursing homes, but the discrepancies and different reporting procedures make that explanation seem unlikely.
Charts
The first two charts below are based on data for the Northeast Health District from the 11:25 a.m. Daily Status Report for Saturday and the Long-Term Care Facility COVID-19 Report released late on Friday. (The report is marked as current for 2 p.m. on Friday.)
The second two charts are based on data for the state of Georgia updated after release of the 11:25 a.m. Daily Status Report on Saturday.
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