Friday, May 15, 2020

Oconee County Added 14 New COVID-19 Cases On Friday And Has Three COVID-19 Deaths

***Area Hospital Critical Care Bed Availability Drops***

Oconee County added 14 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report at 1 p.m. on Friday, the largest single-day increase ever reported for the county.

The Department of Public Health’s Daily Status Report also added two additional deaths attributed to COVID-19 in Oconee County.

Three different state agencies are now reporting data on COVID-19, and the Department of Community Health earlier had reported two COVID-19 deaths at High Shoals Health and Rehabilitation nursing home in the west of Oconee County.

Late on Thursday, the Department of Community Health, in its Long-Term Care Facility Report, listed a third death at the New High Shoals nursing home.

Oconee County Sheriff Scott Berry, who has been relaying Georgia Emergency Management Agency data on his Facebook page, reported on Friday that his office had been informed of an additional address in the county with 14 Active Cases of COVID-19.

The Department of Community Health, in its Thursday Reported, listed 16 COVID Positive Residents at the New High Shoals nursing home and three COVID Positive Staff.

Local Hospital Beds And State Data

The Georgia Emergency Management Agency also reported in its May 14 reports that number of available hospital Critical Care Beds in the region had dropped from 19 on May 11 to 10 on May 14.

Based on the Department of Public Health Daily Status report, the 10-county region added 13 confirmed COVID-19 cases (Walton and other counties lost cases, and some had slight increases), and the seven-day rolling average of added cases in the 10-county Northeast Health District on Friday increased to 18.6 cases per day.

It had been 15.1 cases per day on May 12.

Across the state on Friday, based on the Daily Status Report, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases increased by 823, and the rolling-average of added cases increased from 656.9 on Thursday to 708.4 on Friday.

The Daily Status Report added 30 new deaths, bringing the state total to 1,557 and the seven-day rolling average to 28.7 from 27.4 on Thursday.

The number of cases recorded in the report reflects to some extent the amount of testing, and testing has increased dramatically in recent weeks. On Friday, 15,993 new tests were recorded.

Data On Deaths

Deaths should be unaffected by testing.

While the seven-day average of deaths has declined (as Chart 5 below shows) from its peak of 42.7 on April 21, it has remained around 30 from April 25 and beyond.

The Department of Public Health has redated these cases to reflect actual date of death rather than date of its recording of the death.

Those data, which I have recorded as explained below, show that the seven-day rolling average of deaths per day was 34.6 on April 26 and 33.4 on May 1–the last day for which the state maintains the data are complete.

In fact, my examination of its records shows that it continues to shift dates of cases back through the beginning of its record keeping.

On Friday, the Department of Public Affairs recorded 23 deaths (out of the 30 overall recorded) that it said occurred from May 2 to May 15.

Additional cases will be added as more deaths are recorded, the Department of Public Affairs reports.

Matching Cases

The Department of Public Health Daily Status reported listed the two deaths in Oconee County as of an 86-year-old man with known chronic conditions and of a woman more than 90 years old without known chronic conditions.

The Department of Community Health does not list characteristics of listed deceased, but the family of one resident of who died of COVID-19 at the North High Shoals nursing home said it was of an 86-year-old male who died on May 1.

By using the date pointing device on one of the charts in the Daily Status Report, it is possible to determine deaths added to the Department of Public Health report each day.

I have recorded those data in the last week.

From Thursday to Friday, the Department of Public Health added the 30 cases, but none of them was for a death on May 1.

The report also did not add any deaths on April 30, but it did add three cases on May 3.

Sheriff’s Report

Sheriff Berry reported on Friday that “GEMA notified us today that we had 14 cases of COVID 19 at one address. Other than that one address there have been no new ACTIVE cases reported in Oconee.”

Berry does not identify the addresses in his reports, and he said on Thursday that the total number of Active COVID-19 cases in the county was 13 and would be reduced by four at the end of the day. Cases are considered inactive after 21 days.

Based on that information, the number of COVID-19 Positive addresses was 10 at the end of the day on Friday.

The Department of Public Health issued a Long-Term Care Facility COVID-19 Report on April 28, again on May 1, on May 5 through 8, and on May 11 through 14.

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 May 8 Report, High Shoals Health and Rehabilitation reported 16 COVID Positive Residents, the two deaths, and two COVID Positive Staff.

On May 12 the Department of Community Affairs had reported 16 COVID Positive Residents and two COVID Positive Staff at the facility. The numbers on May 14, as reported above, were 16 COVID Positive Residents, three deaths, and three COVID Positive Staff.

Charts

The first three charts below show data for the region.

Chart 1 is based on data from the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report for 1 p.m. on Friday and shows the trends in added cases in the 10-county Northeast Health District across time as well as the seven-day rolling average of cases. The total number of cases for the Northeast Health District is 1,034 and for Oconee County it is 80.

The Daily Status Report does not separate data by Health District, but each day I select and copy out data for each of the 10 counties in the northeast Health District to create these charts.

The second chart is from the Department of Community Health Long-Term Care Facility Report. The most recent data are for May 14 and include data through 2 p.m on that date.

I have pulled out of the file data for the 10-county Northeast Health District, which includes Oconee and Clarke counties.

The third chart is based on data from the Georgia Emergency Management Agency Situation Report for May 14, released early on May 15.

The data are for the 10 counties in the Department of Public Health Northeast District plus Hart and Franklin counties.

Charts 4 and 5 are for the state of Georgia and are based on data from the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report for 1 p.m. on Friday.

Chart 6 is from the Georgia Emergency Management Agency Situation Report for May 14.

Chart 1 (Click To Enlarge)

Chart 2 (Click To Enlarge)

Chart 24 (Click To Enlarge)

Chart 4 (Click To Enlarge)

Chart 5 (Click To Enlarge)

Chart 6 (Click To Enlarge)

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Thank you for your detailed reporting. I have a question about the Board of Education videos. Do you know when that meeting occurred? I can't find a date, and I would like to know if it was after social distancing guidelines were implemented. Thanks.

Unknown said...

I hope they can get the outbreak at High Shoals under control. Hopefully they have enough PPE. Maybe National Guard can go back and disinfect again. Since the staff live in our community, I hope they are able to quarantine and that they do OK. The testing numbers are moving in a positive direction. It is good that they are willing to test anyone who requests a test. I look forward to the day that the number of new cases also begins to drop consistently.

Jeanne Barsanti

Lee Becker said...

Unknown,

I'm confused by your question. I always date the video I use on stories I post.

Also, please do sign your name if your Google Account does not include it.

Thanks.

Lee