Oconee County Observations: As COVID-19 Cases Increase In State, Northeast Health District Shows No Increase In Seven-Day Rolling Average Of New Cases

Thursday, June 11, 2020

As COVID-19 Cases Increase In State, Northeast Health District Shows No Increase In Seven-Day Rolling Average Of New Cases

***Only One New Case Reported At Long-Term Care Facilities***

Even as the state of Georgia saw continuing increases on Thursday in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths, in the 10-county Northeast Health District the average number of new cases remained the same as the day before and the average number of new deaths was down just slightly.

The Northeast Health District did add 35 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Thursday Daily Status Report of the Department of Public Health, up from 19 the day before.

Oconee County added two cases and all but two of the counties in the District added at least one new COVID-19 case, but the District added 35 cases a week ago as well, and the seven-day rolling average was steady at 27.0 cases per day.

The Northeast Health District also added a new COVID-19 death, bringing the total to 89. The newly recorded death was of an 84-year-old male in Barrow County without known chronic conditions.

The seven-day rolling average of added deaths from COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District dropped from 1.6 on Wednesday to 1.4 on Thursday.

The Department of Community Health reported on Thursday that no new COVID-19 deaths had occurred in the 22 facilities in the Northeast Health District in its report.

While one new confirmed COVID-19 Positive Resident had been identified in the Department of Community Health records, the actual number of currently active cases had dropped from 211 on Wednesday to 205 on Thursday.

The recent arrested growth of COVID-19 cases in the area’s long-term care facilities is good news, but it does mean that the continued growth of cases in the District is occurring outside those facilities where the disease can spread more widely.

The Georgia Emergency Management Agency reported on Thursday that the number of Critical Care Beds available at area hospitals increased on Thursday to 24 from 22 on Wednesday.

State Data

The Department of Public Health Reported 993 new COVID-19 cases around the state in its Thursday Daily Status Report, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases increased to 732.3 per day from 726.3 per day on Wednesday. The seven-day rolling average has increased each of the last three days.

The state added 46 new COVID-19 deaths in the Thursday Daily Status Report, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths increased from 29.4 on Wednesday to 32.6 on Thursday. The seven-day average of added deaths has increased each of the last three day.

The Department of Public Health reported that only 23 of those 46 cases had occurred in the last 14 days, and it recorded at least one of those deaths as far back as April 12, that is, nearly two months ago.

The Department of Public Health also eliminated three cases from the list, meaning that the real number of added cases was 49, not the reported 46.

The Department of Community Health on Thursday added two new long-term care facilities in the state to its list of facilities with COVID-19 residents or staff.

The Georgia Emergency Management Agency, in its Thursday report, said that 842 Confirmed COVID-19 Hospitalizations were in the state, up by 25 from Wednesday. The number of Ventilators in use increased by 12 from the report of the day before.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists Georgia as the 11th state in the country in terms of number of confirmed COVID-19 disease and 14th in terms of total deaths attributed to the disease. The state is 20th in terms of deaths per 100,000 population.

Charts

The first three charts below are for the 10-county Northeast Health District of the Georgia Department of Public Health.

The final two charts are for the state of Georgia as a whole.

All of the charts except Chart 3 are based on data released in the Daily Status Report for the Department of Public Health and have been updated for the release of the Daily Status Report of 2:50 p.m. on Thursday.

Chart 3 is based on data from the Department of Community Health Long-Term Care Facility Report and has been updated based on the Thursday report, dated for 2 p.m.