Clarke County Added 74 New Confirmed COVID-19 Cases As Northeast Health District Added Record 207

***Clarke County Also Added A COVID-19 Death***

The Northeast Health of the Department of Public Health, led by Clarke County, recorded a record number 207 new COVID-19 confirmed cases on Friday and three deaths attributed to the disease.

Each of the 10 counties in the Northeast Health District added cases, but Clarke County’s 74 cases led the group and was the largest single-day increase for the county. The previous high number had been 65 on July 18.

Oconee County added 10 cases, and the seven-day rolling average for the 10-county District increased to 153.1, the highest number ever. The figure had been 148.1 on Thursday.

The three deaths included a 32-year-old female in Clarke County without a known chronic condition.

The other deaths were of a 70-year-old female in Walton County with a chronic condition and of an 85-year-old male in Walton County without a known chronic condition.

The seven-day rolling average of added deaths in the Northeast Health District increased to 0.5 on Friday from 0.3 on Thursday.

The tally of deaths in the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report does not include a death at Avery Place personal care home in Winterville in Clarke County reported in the Department of Community Health Long-Term Care Facility Report for Friday.

That report also lists one COVID-19 positive staff at that facility and seven new COVID-19 positive staff at a personal care home in Jackson County.

The Georgia Emergency Management Agency reported on Friday that the number of available Critical Care Beds at area hospitals increased from one to five. The number has not been higher than five since last Sunday.

The Georgia Department of Revenue on Friday released its sales tax distributions for June, giving another indicator of the nature of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the local economy.

Oconee County collected nearly the same sales tax revenue in June of 2020 as it collected in June of 2019, and Clarke County actually collected more in sales tax in June of 2020 than it did in June of last year.

Tax Distributions

Oconee County collects three different sales taxes, the Local Option Sales Tax (LOST), the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST), and the Education Local Option Sales Tax (ELOST).

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All three decreased by only 0.3 percent from June of a year ago, compared with a 6.0 percent decline in the three taxes in May and a 10.6 percent decline in April. Revenues also declined in March over a year earlier.

Clarke County collects those same three taxes, and all three of them produced increased revenue in June of 2020 compared with June of 2019.

For LOST, the increase was 2.9 percent, for SPLOST it was 3.1 percent, and for ELOST it was 2.7 percent.

Revenues were down in March, April and May in Clarke County for those taxes compared with the same months in 2019.

SPLOST and ELOST mostly produce the same revenues, while more exemptions result in lower revenues for LOST. Clarke County also collect a parallel Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax that Oconee County does not collect.

Data released by the Georgia Department of Labor on Thursday showed unemployment rates dropping in both Oconee and Clarke counties from May of this year to June.

Rates in both counties were still higher than a year ago.

State COVID-19 Data

Across the state of Georgia, the Department of Public Health added 4,149 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Friday, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases dropped from 3,708.1 on Thursday to 3,613.3 on Friday.

The seven-day rolling average has not shown any strong growth since it’s peak at 3,742.4 on July 19.

The Department of Public Health’s Daily Status Report added 81 new deaths across the state on Friday, and the seven-day rolling average was 44.4, compared with 44.6 on Thursday.

The high point in added deaths so far was a rolling average of 47.6 on Monday (July 27).

Only 57 of those 81 deaths reported on Friday occurred in the last 14 days, with one of those deaths listed as having happened as far back as May 4.

The seven-day rolling average of deaths by date of occurrence rather than date of reporting increased to 16.9 on Friday, the highest number ever recorded for deaths by date of occurrence going back to when the state started releasing these data in early May.

The Georgia Department of Community Health on Friday listed 606 of the state’s 790 long-term care facilities with 25 or more beds as having COVID-19 among their residents and/or staff, up from 605 on Thursday.

The Georgia Emergency Management Agency reported 3,155 Current Confirmed COVID-19 Hospitalizations on Friday, down from the record 3,200 reported on Thursday.

The Agency reported 1,214 ventilators in use, down from 1,250 on Thursday.

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 Friday.

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 Friday.

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.

Chart 1

Chart 2

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Chart 5

Chart 6