Wednesday, December 09, 2020

State Adds 329 New COVID-19 Cases, Six Deaths, In Wednesday Reports For Northeast Health District; Two Deaths In Clarke County

***UGA Reports Increase In Positive Tests And Positivity Rate***

The Department of Public Health reported on Wednesday that the Northeast Health District added 280 confirmed cases of COVID-19 based on molecular tests, 49 cases based on antigen tests, and three deaths attributed to the disease, including one in Clarke County.

The Department of Community Health also reported three deaths from the disease at area long-term care facilities, including one in Clarke County.

The Clarke County death listed in the Daily Status report was of a 57-year-old male with a chronic condition. His death brings to 56 the number of deaths from the disease in Clarke County based on the official count of the Department of Public Health.

The other deaths in the Daily Status Report were of an 85-year-old female in Barrow County with a chronic condition and of a 77-year-old male in Madison County with a chronic condition. Barrow County now has 60 deaths attributed to COVID-19 and Madison County has 14.

The three added deaths from the corona virus in the Daily Status Report bring to 364 the number in the 10-county Northeast Health District. The District had added three deaths on last Wednesday, and the seven-day rolling average remained unchanged on Wednesday at 1.4 deaths per day.

The Department of Community Health, in its Wednesday Long-Term Care Facility Report, listed a death from COVID-19 at PruittHealth–Athens Heritage nursing home in Clarke County. The Department of Community Health does not list characteristics of the deceased.

The other two deaths listed in the Department of Community Health report were at Magnolia Estates personal care home in Elbert County.

The Department of Community Health also listed 10 new cases of COVID-19 among staff at the Northeast Health District’s long-term care homes.

Four of the state cases were at homes in Clarke County: Arbor Terrace of Athens personal care home, The Oaks–Athens Skilled Nursing, both with a single case, and Pruitt-HealthAthens Heritage, with two cases.

The other staff cases were at Jackson Oaks Senior Living personal care home in Jackson County (three cases), Great Oaks personal care home in Walton County (two cases), and Park Place Nursing Facility (one case), also in Walton County.

Molecular And Antigen Tests

Every county in the district added cases based on molecular tests in the Daily Status Report, with Oconee County adding 13 cases and Clarke County adding 60.

The seven-day rolling average of added cases in the Northeast Health District based on the molecular test increased to 231.4 on Wednesday from 225.6 on Tuesday. The average added cases of 231.4 is the highest that figure has ever been.

The seven-day rolling average of added cases based on antigen tests dropped to 54.4 on Wednesday from 58.7 on Tuesday. The state has reported the results of antigen tests only since Nov. 3.

Every county in the District added at least one case based on an antigen test, with Oconee county adding a single case and Clarke County adding eight cases.

The seven-day rolling average of added cases based on combined molecular and antigen tests fell slightly in both Clarke and Oconee counties.

For the District as a whole, the seven-day rolling average of combined cases based on molecular and antigen tests increased to 285.9 on Wednesday from 284.3 on Tuesday.

Hospital and University Of Georgia Reports

The Georgia Hospital Association (GHA) and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA) reported on Wednesday that the number of COVID-19 patients at area hospitals (140) decreased by 12 from the day before, that the number of ICU beds in use (65) increased by one from the day before, and that the number of adult ventilators in use (30) decreased by two from the day before.

The University of Georgia reported on Wednesday as part of its COVID-19 Health and Exposure Update that the number of Positive COVID-19 Tests locally increased to 119 in the week ending Dec. 6 from 41 a week earlier.

The total number of Positive Tests, including those not conducted in Athens-Clarke County, increased from 77 to 175.

The positivity rate for walk-in tests at Legion Field increased from 0.8 in the week ending Nov. 27 to 4.2 in the week ending Dec. 6. The number of tests had been 2,138 a week earlier and was 2,130 this past week.

State Data

The Department of Public Health reported 46 deaths attributed to COVID-19 across the state in the Wednesday Daily Status Report.

The seven-day rolling average of added deaths from the disease increased to 35.6 from 34.0 on Tuesday.

Thirty of those 46 deaths occurred in the last 14 days, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths based on date of occurrence remained unchanged from Tuesday.

The Daily Status Report listed 3,783 new COVID-19 cases based on molecular tests, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases based on this test dropped to 3,909.4 on Wednesday from 3,953.9 on Tuesday.

The state added 1,927 cases based on antigen tests, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases based on this test increased to 1,351.6 on Wednesday from 1,333.4 on Tuesday.

Across the state, the Georgia Hospital Association (GHA) and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA) reported on Wednesday that the number of COVID-19 patients (2,672) increased from the day before, the number of ICU beds in use (2,538) increased from the day before, and the number of adult ventilators in use (867) decreased from the day before.

The number of COVID-19 patients is the highest it has been since Aug. 14.

The Department of Community Health listed 662 long-term care facilities across the state with COVID-19 among their residents and/or staff on Wednesday, down from 663 on Tuesday. The decline is a reporting error, as facilities are supposed to report once they have had a COVID-19 case even if nothing changes the following days.

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 Wednesday.

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 in the main chart and for the University of Georgia in the inserted table.

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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