Thursday, September 03, 2020

Clarke County Adds Record New COVID-19 Confirmed Cases, Pushing Seven-Day Rolling Average For Northeast Health District To New High

***Clarke Also Adds A COVID-19 Death***

Led by the addition of COVID-19 cases in Clarke County, the seven-day rolling average of added cases in the 10-county Northeast Health District increased to 184.1 on Thursday from 165.4 the day before.

The Department of Public Health Daily Status Report listed 173 new cases of the disease in Clarke County, the largest single-day increase ever recorded in the county. The earlier record had been 154 new cases on Tuesday.

Every county in the District added cases, with Oconee County adding seven, and the seven-day rolling average of 184.1 is a new record for the District.

The district also added two deaths, one in Clarke County and the other in Greene County, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths dropped from 2.9 on Wednesday to 2.6 on Thursday. The District had added four deaths a week ago.

The Clarke County death was of a 58-year-old male with no chronic condition. The Greene County death was of an 82-year-old female without a known chronic condition.

The Clarke County death was the fifth in the last eight days, and does not count the four deaths at county nursing homes.

Hospital, Long-Term Care Data

The Georgia Hospital Association and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency on Thursday reported that area hospitals had 78 COVID-19 patients, down from 82 on Wednesday, 63 ICU Beds In Use, the same as on Wednesday, and 35 ventilators in use, up from 31 on Wednesday.

The Department of Community Health listed 17 new COVID-19 positive residents in the Northeast Health District in its Long-Term Care Facility Report on Thursday.

All of the newly positive residents were at PruittHealth Spring Valley nursing home in Elberton, which went from 12 of its 48 residents with COVID-19 with the Wednesday report to 29 on Thursday.

That report also listed nine new COVID-19 Staff at the area’s 34 long-term care facilities with COVID-19 cases, six of them at the PruittHealth Spring Valley nursing home in Elberton, one at Arbor Terrace of Athens personal care home in Clarke County, and two at Winder Health Care and Rehabilitation Center in Barrow County.

Oconee And Clarke Testing

Molecular PCR testing across the state has been dropping, according to data from the Department of Public Health, but testing in Athens-Clarke County has been on the increase since the opening of the University of Georgia, as shown in the insert in Chart 3 below.

The percentage of positive tests, shown as the seven-day rolling average for Thursday, was 13.9 for Clarke County, or nearly double the state figure for Thursday.

In Oconee County, which opened classes on Aug. 5, the picture is less clear.

Testing increased from Aug. 5 to Aug. 11 and then fell sharply to Aug. 18. It then increased to Aug. 26 before dropping sharply again.

Oconee County Schools is to release an update on COVID-19 among students, faculty and staff tomorrow.

The percentage of positive cases for Thursday, shown as the seven-day rolling average for Thursday, was 6.6, which is below the state figure for Thursday.

The Department of Public Health states that the testing data it reports are limited to tests filed through its electronic reporting system.

State Data

Across the state, the Daily Status Report on Thursday listed 2,733 new cases, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases increased to 2,096.1 from 2,070.0 on Wednesday.

The increased number of cases reflects an increase in testing on Thursday. On Thursday, 29,028 new molecular tests were recorded in the Daily Status Report, and the seven-day rolling average of added tests increased for the first time in nine days to 20,261.1.

The percentage of tests that were positive in the Thursday report was 7.7, down from 8.5 on Wednesday but identical to the figure of Tuesday. Across the last week, the average is 8.7 percent.

The state added 75 COVID-19 deaths on Thursday, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths attributed to the disease was 69.9, down from 71.4 on Wednesday.

Only 34 of the newly added deaths were in the last 14 days, but the seven-day rolling average of added deaths by time of occurrence increased just slightly on Thursday from Wednesday.

The state reported eliminating two deaths previously reported in the Daily Status Report database as attributable to COVID-19.

The Georgia Hospital Association and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency on Thursday reported that hospitals across the state had 1,791 COVID-19 patients, down from 1,859 on Wednesday, 2,493 ICU Beds In Use, down from 2,529 on Wednesday, and 1,028 ventilators in use, down from 1,029 on Wednesday.

The Department of Community Health reported that COVID-19 was present among the residents and/or staff of 646 long-term care facilities in the state, up from 644 on Wednesday.

Charts

All of the charts 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.

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.

Click on any of the charts to enlarge it.

Chart 1

Chart 2

Chart 3

Chart 4

Chart 5

3 comments:

Rosemary Woodel said...

What about the 800+ cases UGA is reporting? Is that in here and I missed it?

Lee Becker said...

Rosemary,

The University web site says this: "When UGA learns of positive cases, they are reported to the GDPH in a timely manner and in the county where individuals are currently located.: GDPH stands for Georgia Department of Public Health, which puts out the Daily Status Report.

The University also says: "The “Other” category in the survey tool is provided to indicate that a test was not done by a resource in the Athens, Clarke County community. Many of the positive reports in this category are reported to be from urgent care clinics and testing centers at a wide variety of locations in and out of the state of Georgia. The University has no way to validate the majority of these reports or the quality of those unknown testing sites but is reporting them as submitted."

In my report on Wednesday, I summed the results of the three local tests. That was 409 on Wednesday. These numbers should appears in the DSR for Athens-Clarke County at some point. It isn't possible to know when, given that the University isn't saying when it reports to DPH and DPH doesn't say when it receives the reports.

I hope that helps.

Lee

Rosemary Woodel said...

What a mess! I can't imagine how you keep all that straight but appreciate what you do.