Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Northeast Health District Has Record Number Of COVID-19 Cases, 467, And Three Deaths From Disease

***Oconee County Schools Has Flare-Up In Final Week Of Classes***

The Department of Public Health reported a record number of COVID-19 cases–467--in the 10-county Northeast Health District on Tuesday, plus two deaths from the disease.

The Department of Community Health also reported a COVID-19 death at a long-term care facility in the Northeast Health District and a continued outbreak of the disease at Clarke County long-term care homes as well as at these facilities throughout the District.

Oconee County Schools since Friday has notified parents of at least 15 new active cases of COVID-19 at the county’s schools–tying the record number of active cases reported on Friday.

The two deaths listed in the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report were of a 90-plus-year-old female in Elbert County without a chronic condition and of an 86-year-old female in Jackson County without a known chronic condition.

The Department of Community Health, in its Tuesday Long-Term Care Facility Report, listed a death from COVID-19 among residents of The Retreat at Loganville personal care home in Walton County. The Report does not list characteristics of the deceased.

The Department of Public Health also eliminated the death of an 18-year-old male from Madison County without a known chronic condition that it had included in Monday’s report.

The net of one death from the disease in Tuesday’s Daily Status Report pushed up the seven-day rolling average of added deaths in this official tally of deaths from COVID-19 to 1.6 from 1.4 on Monday.

The Department of Public Health also reported three COVID-19 “probable deaths,” or deaths that are likely the result of COVID-19 as opposed to deaths “confirmed” as due to the disease. These were in Clarke, Elbert and Jackson counties. No further information is provided on these deaths.

Cases

The Department of Public Health reported 321 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 based on molecular tests in the 10 counties that make up the Northeast Health District and 146 cases identified through the rapid antigen tests. The total of 467 exceeds the previous high of 431 on Dec. 10.

The seven-day rolling average of added cases based on a combination of the tests climbed to 346.3 on Tuesday, the highest level since the state began reporting both molecular and antigen tests results on Nov. 3.

Oconee County added a total of 46 new COVID-19 cases combining results of both tests–a record number–on Tuesday, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases was 19.7, up from 15.6 on Monday. This is the highest rolling average reported for Oconee County going back to Nov. 3.

Clarke County added 81 cases based on both tests, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases increased to 68.6 on Tuesday from 65.6 on Monday. This also was a record going back to Nov. 3.

The Department of Community Health also listed seven new cases of COVID-19 among residents of long-term care facilities in the Northeast Health District.

Six of those cases were in Clarke County at: Arbor Terrace of Athens personal care home (one case), The Oaks–Athens Skilled Nursing (three), and PruittHealth–Athens Heritage (two). The final case was at The Retreat at Loganville personal care home in Walton County.

The Department of Community Health reported 15 new cases of COVID-19 among staff at long-term care homes in the Northeast Health District, and 10 of those were in Clarke County and an 11th was in Oconee County.

The Clarke County staff cases were at The Oaks–Athens Skilled Nursing (four cases) and PruittHealth–Athens Heritage nursing home (six). The Oaks had added a staff case on Monday as well as a death from the disease.

The Oconee County staff case was at High Shoals Health and Rehabilitation nursing home, 3450 New High Shoals Road, in the west of the county. The facility has reported 17 staff cases since the pandemic broke out, eight deaths from the disease, and 50 cases among residents.

The other staff cases reported on Tuesday were at Jackson Oaks Senior Living personal care home in Jackson County (three cases) and Hollander Senior Living personal care home in Walton County (one case).

School Notices, Hospital Reports

Oconee County Schools issues a report on COVID-19 at the schools only on Friday’s, but it sends out notices to parents as the week progresses.

Since the Friday report, at least 15 cases have been announced to parents, with four of them at North Oconee High School, four at Oconee County High School, three of them at Malcom Bridge Middle School, three at High Shoals Elementary School, and one at Oconee County Middle School.

On Friday, Oconee County Schools reported 15 Active COVID-19 Cases and 149 Active Quarantines, the highest numbers of Cases and Quarantines reported since the school year began.

The Georgia Hospital Association (GHA) and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA) reported on Tuesday that the number of COVID-19 patients at area hospitals (171) decreased by two from the day before, that the number of ICU beds in use (68) increased by one from the day before, and that the number of adult ventilators in use (27) decreased by one from the day before.

State Data

Across the state, the Daily Status Report listed 35 deaths from COVID-19 on Tuesday as well as 24 “probable deaths.”

The seven-day rolling average of added confirmed deaths increased to 33.1 on Tuesday from 31.0 on Monday.

The state eliminated three deaths from its records–including the one in Madison County. Nineteen of the deaths were in the last 14 days.

The Daily Status Report listed 4,860 confirmed cases based on molecular tests and 2,787 cases based on antigen tests. The seven-day rolling average of added cases based on a combination of the tests increased to 6,177.0 on Tuesday from 5,901.1 on Monday. The Tuesday average is a new record.

Across the state, the Georgia Hospital Association (GHA) and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA) reported on Tuesday that the number of COVID-19 patients (2,968) increased from the day before, the number of ICU beds in use (2,488) increased from the day before, and the number of adult ventilators in use (874) decreased from the day before.

The number of COVID-19 patients is the highest it has been since Aug. 7.

The Department of Community Health listed 673 long-term care facilities in the state with COVID-19 among their residents and/or staff on Tuesday, up from 670 on Monday.

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 Tuesday.

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 shows data for Oconee and Clarke counties only on the left and for District E of GEMA on the right. District E is made up of the 10 counties of the Northeast Health District plus Franklin and Hart counties.

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

Chart 1
Chart 2
Chart 3
Chart 4
Chart 5

 

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