Northeast Health District Added 83 New COVID-19 Cases On Saturday, But No New Deaths From The Disease

***Clarke County Added 29 Cases, Oconee Added Six***

The 10-county Northeast Health District topped off a bad week on Saturday by adding 83 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 that pushed up the seven-day rolling average of added cases to 77.3, a new record. A week ago the seven-day average was 41.7.

Every county in the District added at least one case except for Greene. Clarke County led by adding 29 cases, and Oconee County added six.

Across the week, the District has added 541 cases, with Clarke County accounting for 209 of those cases and Oconee County accounting for 31.

The state as a whole added 2,826 new cases with the issuance of the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report on Saturday, and the seven-day rolling average jumped to 2,619.1, a new record.

For the eighth day in a row, the Northeast Health District did not add any deaths attributed to COVID-19, so the seven-day rolling average remained at 0.

The state as a whole added only one death on Saturday, and the seven-day rolling average dropped to 11.6, the lowest figure going back to the end of March.

The single death that the Department of Public Health reported on Saturday actually occured on March 27, according to the records it released.

The Georgia Emergency Management Agency, which reports on Confirmed COVID-19 Hospitalizations, hospital bed use, and ventilator use, has not issued a report since Thursday. Hospitalizations were increasing in the most recent report.

Charts

All five of the charts below are based on data from the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report and have been updated with data from the 2:50 p.m. release of that report on Saturday.

Charts 1 through 3 are for the 10-county Northeast Health District, while Charts 4 and 5 present data for the entire state of Georgia.

The Department of Public Health does include a measure labeled Hospitalizations, but I did not include it in Chart 3.

The Department of Public Health explains the measure this way:

“This number includes the confirmed COVID-19 cases that were hospitalized at the time the case was reported to DPH or when the case was interviewed. This number does not capture hospitalizations that occur after a confirmed case was reported and, as such, is likely an underestimation of actual hospitalizations.

“It does not represent the number of COVID-19 cases currently hospitalized,” the statement continues.

Though this number is used in many media reports, I have not used it because I do not think it is meaningful.

The Georgia Emergency Management Agency report does include a Current COVID-19 Hospitalization report, but, as noted above, it has not been issued since Thursday evening.

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)