The Georgia Emergency Management Agency reported on Thursday that the number of Critical Care Beds in use at area hospitals increased by nine over Thursday. The hospitals increased the Critical Care Bed capacity by five to 75, and one Critical Care Bed was listed as available.
The nine hospitals in the area surrounding Oconee and Clarke counties are asked to provide their data on bed availability by noon each day, according to the Agency. The report was dated at 4:10 p.m. on Thursday.
The number of Critical Care Beds available at area hospitals has been 0 twice in the last week and has been one twice.
The Department of Public Health on Thursday reported 173 new Confirmed COVID-19 cases in the 10-county Northeast Health District on Thursday, with nine of those case in Oconee County and 34 in Clarke County.
The seven-day rolling average of added cases in the District dropped to 148.1 from 152.0 on Wednesday because a record 200 cases had been added a week ago.
No New Deaths Reported
The Department of Public Health reported no new deaths from COVID-19 in the 10-county District on Thursday, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths remained unchanged at 0.3
The Department of Community Health reported three new COVID-19 cases among staff at the Social Circle Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Walton County and six new COVID-19 positive staff at the same facility.
The Georgia Department of Labor on Thursday released its preliminary estimates of unemployment rates in the state and its 159 counties, showing evidence of an easing of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy.
Across the state and in each of the 10 counties that make up the Northeast Health District, the unemployment rate dropped in June from May, based on the preliminary estimates.
A second indicator of the economic impact of COVID-19–sales tax distributions for June–will be released on Friday.
Unemployment Rates
The unemployment rate for Oconee County dropped from 5.8 percent in May to 4.6 in June, based on the preliminary estimate for June released on Thursday.
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The unemployment rate had been 3.8 percent in March and 2.9 in June of 2019.
In Clarke County, the unemployment rate dropped from 9.0 percent in May to 7.7 percent in the preliminary June estimate.
In March, the Clarke County unemployment rate had been 4.7 percent, and it had been 4.2 percent in June of 2019.
Across the state, the preliminary estimate of the unemployment rate for June is 7.9 percent, down from 9.2 percent in May.
In March of this year, the state unemployment rate had been 4.5 percent, and it was 3.8 percent in June of 2019.
State Data
Across the state of Georgia, the Department of Public Health reported 4,045 new COVID-19 cases in the Daily Status Report on Thursday.
The number of new cases, however, was only 3,963 more than had been listed on Wednesday.
The Department of Public Health explains this discrepancy by saying that “The cases reported today may not equal the difference in total cases between yesterday and today because previously reported cases may be removed as duplicate reports are corrected or may be reclassified as additional information is collected during case investigation.”
This discrepancy has appeared only in the last four days, and I have gone back to revise the seven-day rolling average using the higher figures being reported by the Department of Public Health.
That seven-day rolling average is 3,708.1, down from 3,742.6 on Wednesday.
The average number of added new cases has not increased since reaching the 3,742.4 level on July 19.
The Department of Public Health reported 30 new deaths resulting from COVID-19 on Thursday, and the seven-day rolling average of deaths increased to 44.6 from 43.9 on Wednesday.
The difference between the number of deaths reported on Wednesday and the number reported on Thursday was 29, meaning that at least one case was eliminated from the file after having been logged.
My analysis of the data behind the chart on deaths in the Daily Status Report shows that four cases were removed, though it seems that three of them were simply moved to other dates in the file.
Twenty five of the added cases were in the last 14 days.
The Department of Community Health added three long-term care facilities across the state to its list of facilities with COVID-19 among its residents and/or staff.
The Georgia Emergency Management Agency reported that the number of Current Confirmed COVID-19 Hospitalizations increased to 3,200, a new record.
The number of ventilators in use also increased to 1,250, up from 1,215 on Wednesday.
Charts
Charts 1 to 5 below are based on data from the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report and have been updated to include data from the release of that report at 2:50 p.m. on Thursday.
Chart 6 is based on data from the Georgia Emergency Management Agency Situation Report COVID-19 and has been updated to include data from the late afternoon report on Thursday.
Charts 1 and 2 include data from the 10-county Northeast Health District of the Department of Public Health, which includes Oconee and Clarke counties.
Chart 3 presents data for Oconee and Clarke counties only.
Charts 4 and 5 show data for the entire state of Georgia.
Chart 6 includes, in the main chart, data for the state of Georgia and, in the inset, data for Region E of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, which includes Oconee and Clarke Counties, the remaining counties in the Northeast Health District, and Franklin and Hart counties.
Click on any of the charts to enlarge it.
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2 comments:
Did you hear this report on NPR this morning? https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/07/31/897429054/covid-19-hospital-data-system-that-bypasses-cdc-plagued-by-delays-inaccuracies. As imperfect as the Georgia reporting may be, at least it's daily.
Rosemary,
I had not seen/heard this. Thanks for sharing. I think we have learned how unprepared our various government agencies were for the task of informing the public about these crucial data. Things have gotten better over time in Georgia, but big gaps remain.
Lee
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