Friday, June 26, 2020

Number Of New Cases Of COVID-19 In State Soared On Friday, Setting New Record

***Northeast Health District Cases Also Increased***

The spread of COVID-19 in the state entered entirely new territory on Friday with the Department of Public Health reporting 1,900 new confirmed cases, the highest level ever reported.

The Daily Status Report listed 1,800 new cases on Saturday of last week, the previous high record, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases was 1,569.4 on Friday, the highest rolling average ever.

By way of comparison, the seven-day rolling average on April 13, during the middle of the earlier period of rapid growth, had been only 857.3 cases per day.

The increased number of cases clearly is not the result only of increased testing, as the percent of viral tests that have produced positive results has increased relatively consistently since June 17 and was at its highest point ever on Friday, based on data released by the Department of Public Health.

In the 10-county Northeast Health District, which includes Oconee and Clarke counties, the number of new confirmed cases of COVID-19 added in the Friday Daily Status Report was 48, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases was 37.1.

The Friday seven-day rolling average is exceeded only by the 38.4 average cases on May 30.

Oconee County was one of three counties in the region (Morgan and Madison counties were the others) that did not add new cases on Friday, but Clarke County added 22 cases, the same number it had added on Thursday.

Clarke County is clearly in a growth spurt in terms of new cases of COVID-19, having added 89 cases in the last week, but Clarke and Oconee counties are not reporting radically different case counts per 100,000 population.

Deaths Reported

The Department of Public Health listed 2,770 deaths in Georgia attributed to COVID-19 in the Daily Status Report on Friday, which is 25 more than was listed in the Daily Status Report on Thursday.

The Department of Public Health removed three deaths previously listed as resulting from COVID-19 from its data file, meaning that, in fact, 28 new deaths were recorded, not 25.

Twenty-six of those 28 deaths occurred in the last 14 days, and the seven-day rolling average of deaths by date of occurrence increased on Friday, as it had on Thursday.

The evidence is that deaths are simply lagging behind the great increase of cases recorded in the last week.

The seven-day rolling average of deaths based on date of reporting rather than date of occurrence dropped from 20.0 on Thursday to 19.1 on Friday.

In the 10-county Northeast Health District, one new death was recorded, of an 87-year-old male in Jackson County without a known chronic condition.

The seven-day rolling average of added deaths in the Northeast Health District on Friday was 0.6, down from 1.1 on Thursday.

The Georgia Emergency Management Agency reported on Friday that the number of Confirmed COVID-19 Hospitalizations across the state increased again to 1,184. This was the 13th day of increases in COVID-19 hospitalizations.

The number of Critical Care Beds available in area hospitals increased in the Friday report to 18 from the low of eight on Thursday.

The Department of Community Health had not released its Long-Term Care Facility Report as of late Friday.

Charts

The five charts below are based on data from the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report and are updated with the release of the report at 2:50 p.m. on Friday.

The first two charts show data for the 10-county Northeast Health District, which includes Clarke and Oconee counties.

Chart 3 shows data for Clarke and Oconee counties only.

Charts 4 and 5 show data for the whole state of Georgia.

Chart 1 (Click To Enlarge)

Chart 2 (Click To Enlarge)

Chart 3 (Click To Enlarge)

Chart 4 (Click To Enlarge)

Chart 5 (Click To Enlarge)

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