Oconee County voters are likely to be asked to approve a new 1 percent sales tax later this year to help the county meet its public works needs, Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chair John Daniell said in the State of the County address.
Daniell said last week that no decision has been made on when the referendum will be on the ballot, but he said that he expects to have the issue on the agenda of a Commission meeting in May or June.
The seven-day rolling averages of both added COVID-19 cases and confirmed deaths from the disease increased in the Northeast Health District with the release of the Saturday Daily Status Report of the Department of Public Health.
The increase of the rolling average of added cases was the sixth in as many days.
The District added three confirmed deaths, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths increased to 1.7 deaths per day from 1.3 deaths per day on Friday.
The rolling averages of added COVID-19 cases and deaths in the Northeast Health District changed only slightly with the Friday release of the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report.
The District added 66 cases of the disease, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases increased to 57.0 from 56.9 on Thursday. That rolling average has increased, albeit by small increments, for each of the last five days.
For the fourth day in a row, the seven-day rolling average of added COVID-19 cases increased in the Northeast Health District on Thursday as the state Department of Public Health recorded 57 new cases of the disease in the District.
The Department of Public Health added three confirmed deaths from COVID-19, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths remained unchanged at 1.4 deaths per day.
Two of the deaths–of a 73-year-old male with a chronic condition and of a 74-year-old male with a chronic condition–were in Jackson County. That county now has 137 deaths from the coronavirus.
Georgia Department of Transportation Chief Engineer Meg Pirkle has overruled the District 1 project team in favor of a full access median commercial break for a major shopping center on the Oconee Connector between SR 316 and Mars Hill Road.
In a letter dated April 6 and posted by Oconee County planning staff on the county website on Wednesday, Pirkle told land owner Maxie Price she was honoring Price’s request for maintenance of the existing median break on the Connector and for an access cut to his property.
As such, she was overturning a decision by Jason Dykes, District 1 traffic engineer, who in an email message to Oconee County on Jan. 12 said the existing median opening would be closed as part of a more than $70 million reconstruction of the SR 316 interchange with the Oconee Connector.
The seven-day rolling average of added COVID-19 cases increased for the third day in a row in the Northeast Health District with the addition on Wednesday of 79 new cases of the disease in the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report.
The increases in the rolling average have been small, from 48.4 on Sunday to 52.9 on Tuesday and 55.0 on Wednesday.
The District increases in cases are reflected at the state level as well, which has seen increases each day since Friday.
The Northeast Health District added 77 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, and, for the second day in a row, the seven-day rolling average of added cases increased.
The District did not add any new confirmed deaths, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths remained unchanged at 2.0 deaths per day.
Attorney William Berryman wants Oconee County commissioners to reject three elements of the county’s planning staff report on a rezone request by his client for a shopping center at the Oconee Connector and Mars Hill Road.
The planning staff is wrong is saying that three parcels owned by Maxie Price’s Deferred Tax can be developed under the current zoning classification, Berryman said in a March 2 letter to the commissioners.
As a result, if the commissioners deny the rezone request it will be a denial of applicant Maxie Price’s constitutional rights to develop his property as protected by the U.S. Constitution, Berryman said.
With the release of the Georgia Department of Public Health Daily Status Report on Monday, the seven-day rolling average of added COVID-19 cases in the Northeast Health District increased, as did the rolling average of added confirmed deaths from the disease.
The District added only 40 cases on Monday, usually a light reporting day, and the District had added 36 cases last Monday.
The seven-day rolling average of added cases in the 10-county District increased to 49.0 from 48.4 on Sunday.
The Department of Public Health Daily Status Report listed 45 new cases of COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District on Sunday, resulting in a slight drop in the seven-day rolling averages of added cases of the disease in the District.
The Daily Status Report listed no new confirmed deaths from the coronavirus, and the seven-day rolling average of added confirmed deaths remained unchanged at 1.7 deaths per day.
With the addition of the 45 cases, the seven-day rolling average of added cases in the 10-county District fell to 48.4 from 48.9 on Saturday. The rolling average has dropped each of the last five days.
With the addition of only 35 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, the seven-day rolling average of added cases in the Northeast Health District fell for the third day in a row.
The District added no confirmed deaths from the disease, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths fell for the second day.
The seven-day rolling averages of added COVID-19 cases and confirmed deaths from the disease fell on Friday with the release of the Department of Public Health’s Daily Status Report.
The District added 65 cases and four confirmed deaths.
Two of the confirmed deaths were in Clarke County, and the other two were in Walton County.
The seven-day rolling average of added cases of COVID-19 dropped in the Northeast Health District on Thursday, but the seven-day rolling average of added confirmed deaths from the disease increased slightly.
The Department of Public Health added only 44 new cases of the disease, but it reported three new confirmed deaths in its Thursday Daily Status Report.
The Northeast Health District added 64 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday and five confirmed deaths from the disease, resulting in a decrease in the rolling average of added cases and an increase in the rolling average of added deaths.
Two of the confirmed deaths listed in the Wednesday Daily Status Report of the Department of Public Health were in Clarke County. Those deaths were of 56 year-old and 60-year-old females, neither of whom had a chronic condition.
With the addition of 50 new cases of COVID-19 and no deaths from the disease in Tuesday’s Daily Status Report, the seven-day rolling average of added cases increased in the Northeast Health District while the rolling average of added deaths from the disease remained unchanged.
The increase in the rolling average of added cases, to 58.0 on Tuesday from 55.9 on Monday, reversed a five-day drop in the rolling average of added cases.
The seven-day rolling average of added deaths stood at 1.6 deaths per day. That average had dropped six days in a row prior to Tuesday.
Oconee County Rep. Houston Gaines promoted his House Bill 286 as a way to keep local governments from reducing funding of police, but its focus is quite narrow and it will have limited effect in Oconee County if it becomes law.
The bill would constrain the budget decisions of the City of Watkinsville, but it would not affect budgeting in the county’s other three cities or of Oconee County government itself.
The bill targets cities with police departments and the 12 counties in the state that also have police departments.
The rolling averages of added cases of COVID-19 and added confirmed deaths from the disease continued to decline in the Northeast Health District on Monday with the release of the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report.
The last increase in the case average was six days ago, and the last increase in the rolling average of confirmed deaths was nine days ago.
The District added only 36 cases of COVID-19, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases dropped to 55.9 from 57.1 on Sunday.
The seven-day rolling averages of both added COVID-19 cases and of deaths from the disease dipped just slightly in the Northeast Health District on Sunday, the fourth day in a row in which both averages declined.
The Department of Public Health’s Daily Status Report listed 48 new cases of COVID-19 in the 10-county Northeast Health District and no new deaths from the disease.
The rolling averages of both COVID-19 cases and deaths from the disease dropped for the third day running in the Northeast Health District with the release of the Daily Status Report by the Department of Public Health on Saturday.
The Daily Status Report listed two deaths: a 90-plus-year-old female in Clarke County without a chronic condition and an 82-year-old female from Oglethorpe County, also without a chronic condition.
The deaths bring to 880 the number in the District since February of last year.
For the second day in a row, the seven-day rolling average of added COVID-19 cases and of added confirmed deaths from the disease fell in the Northeast Health District with the release of the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report.
Oconee County Schools also reported a large drop in the number of Active Cases of COVID-19 in the schools.
Between 2024 and 2027, the Georgia Department of Transportation will construct full interchanges with flyovers on SR 316 at the Oconee Connector and at Jimmy Daniell Road as well as a flyover of Virgil Langford Road without on and off ramps.
These projects will be “bundled,” Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chair John Daniell told in-person and remote participants in a Town Hall meeting last week.
The rolling averages of both added COVID-19 cases and added deaths from the disease dropped in the Northeast Health District on Thursday with the release of the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report.
The District added 61 cases and a single death–of an 88-year-old female in Elbert County without a chronic condition.
The death was the 54th in Elbert County, which has the highest death rate in the District with 285 deaths per 100,000 population.
The Northeast Health District added 85 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, pushing up the seven-day rolling average of added cases. The rolling average of added confirmed deaths from the disease dropped with the addition of two deaths.
One of the added confirmed deaths was in Oconee County, which also had recorded a confirmed death on Sunday.
The Oconee County death was of a 69-year-old female without a chronic condition and brings to 62 the number of deaths in the county from the disease since the first was recorded in May of last year.
The Northeast Health District added only 35 new COVID-19 cases and no new confirmed deaths from the disease on Tuesday with the release of the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report.
The Department of Community Health, however, in its Long-Term Care Facility Report on Tuesday, listed two new deaths at The Landing Senior Living personal care home on U.S. 78 in Oconee County.
The Department of Community Health had listed a death at High Shoals Health and Rehabilitation nursing home, 3450 New High Shoals Road in the west of the county, in Monday’s Long-Term Care Facility Report.
With the addition of confirmed COVID-19 deaths in Clarke and Morgan counties in the Monday Department of Public Health Daily Status Report, the seven-day rolling average of added confirmed deaths in the Northeast Health District increased slightly on Monday.
In addition, the Department of Community Health, in its Long-Term Care Facility Report, listed one new resident death from COVID-19 at High Shoals Health and Rehabilitation nursing home in Oconee County.
The Department of Public Health added 45 new cases of the disease in the Monday Daily Status Report, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases in the District fell on Monday from Sunday.
Sen. Bill Cowsert, Rep. Houston Gaines, and Rep. Marcus Wiedower, who represent Oconee County in the Georgia General Assembly, joined their Republican colleagues last week in voting to pass legislation making major changes to the state’s election laws.
The bill restricts absentee voting, alters how local governments can manage early voting, and gives the legislature itself, through the State Elections Board, much more power over local election procedures.
It also authorizes the three legislators to monitor and request a state audit of Oconee County’s and Clarke County’s election operations.
Oconee County reported its youngest death from COVID-19 in Sunday’s Daily Status Report with the listing of a 24-year-old male without a known chronic condition.
The death brings to 61 the number from the disease since the county recorded its first COVID-19 death in May of last year. The youngest person prior to the listing on Sunday was of a 43-year-old.
The actual date of death of the 24-year-old listed on Sunday was March 19.
With the addition of four COVID-19 deaths and 72 new cases of the disease, the seven-day rolling averages of added deaths and cases increased on Saturday in the Northeast Health District with the release of the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report.
The deaths were of an 83-year-old male in Barrow County with a chronic condition and of an 82-year-old female in Greene County, a 61-year-old female in Jackson County, and a 90-plus-year-old male in Walton County, all without chronic conditions.
With the addition of seven confirmed deaths in Friday’s Daily Status Report, the seven-day rolling average of added deaths increased in the Northeast Health District, while the seven-day rolling average of added cases declined slightly.
Two of those seven deaths were in Clarke County: a 79-year-old male without a chronic condition and an 87-year-old male, also without a chronic condition.
Clarke County had added three deaths on Thursday and two on Wednesday.
The Northeast Health District added nine confirmed COVID-19 deaths on Thursday, pushing the seven-day rolling average of added confirmed deaths to 3.3 per day from 2.3 the day before.
Three of those confirmed deaths were in Clarke County, which had added two confirmed deaths from the disease on Wednesday.
The District added 94 new cases of COVID-19 in the Thursday Department of Public Health Daily Status Report, and the seven rolling average of added cases decreased from Wednesday.
The Northeast Health District added eight confirmed deaths attributed to COVID-19 in the Wednesday Department of Public Health Daily Status Report.
The Department of Community Health also reported four deaths in the District in its Wednesday Long-Term Care Facility Report.
The District added 72 new cases of COVID-19 in the Department of Public Health Report.
The Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration on Monday postponed any decision on a special election in Watkinsville–necessitated by the abrupt resignation of Bob Smith as mayor--pending action taken by the Council on Thursday evening.
Elections Board Chair Rebecca Anglin said at the Monday meeting that although Smith resigned as mayor at the Mayor and Council meeting on March 17, she has not yet been told which offices might need to be filled in a special election.
The seven-day rolling average of added COVID-19 cases dropped in the Northeast Health District with the release of the Daily Status Report on Tuesday while the rolling average of added deaths remained unchanged.
The District added 74 new cases of COVID-19, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases dropped to 88.0 from 91.6 on Monday.
The District did not add any new deaths, as had been the case on Tuesday of last week, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths held steady at 2.3 deaths per day.
Driven by Oconee County’s numbers, the seven-day rolling average of added COVID-19 cases in the Northeast Health District increased on Monday with the release of the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report.
The District added 42 cases confirmed by molecular tests and 17 based on rapid antigen tests, and the seven-day rolling average of total added cases increased to 91.6 from 88.4 on Sunday.
The District added one death–of a 77-year-old male in Madison County without a known chronic condition–and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths fell to 2.3 from 2.4 on Sunday. Monday’s are light reporting days, and the District added two deaths a week ago.
The Northeast Health District Added 79 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, pushing up the seven-day rolling average to near where it was a week ago and suggesting that the drop in cases that began at the beginning of the month has ended.
The District added no new deaths attributed to COVID-19, but that had been true on Sunday of last week, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths remained unchanged at 2.4 deaths per day.
The 10-county District has 837 COVID-19 deaths, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health.
On the one-year anniversary of the Georgia Department of Public Health reporting its first COVID-19 case in Oconee County, the county added seven cases on Saturday, and its seven-day rolling average of added cases was 11.3.
The surrounding 10-county Northeast Health District added 57 cases and two deaths in Saturday’s Department of Public Health Daily Status Report, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases dropped to 82.1 from 83.9 on Friday.
The seven-day rolling average of added COVID-19 confirmed deaths and cases increased in the Northeast Health District on Friday, as the District added three deaths and 90 new cases of the disease.
Oconee County Schools on Friday reported a near doubling of the number of Active Cases in the system’s 11 schools and an exact doubling of the number of Active Quarantines.
Just less than a third of the positive tests for COVID-19 in Oconee County Schools since administrators began recording those data in early September through the first of this month have been for faculty and staff.
Faculty and staff made up more than half of the positive tests reported at the system’s six elementary schools and single primary school, about a quarter of the cases at the two middle schools, and nearly one in five of the cases at the two high schools.
When staff, faculty, and student cases are combined, 32.0 percent of all of the positive tests at the schools going back to Aug. 15 have been at the six elementary schools and the single primary school, 27.8 percent have been at the two middle schools, and 40.2 percent have been at the two high schools.
The Northeast Health District added four confirmed COVID-19 deaths and 134 new cases of the disease with the Thursday release of the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report.
One of the deaths–of a 73-year-old male without a chronic condition–was in Oconee County, the 60th in the county from COVID-19 since the outbreak of the pandemic.
With the addition of eight COVID-19 deaths and 123 new cases of the disease, the seven-day rolling averages of COVID-19 deaths and cases increased in the Northeast Health District on Wednesday.
The deaths were in seven of the 10 counties in the Northeast Health District, according to the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report. The exceptions were Oconee, Clarke, and Jackson counties.
The District now has 830 deaths attributed to the coronavirus, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths increased from 2.1 on Tuesday to 2.4 on Wednesday. The District had added six deaths on Wednesday of last week.
Oconee County Schools’ gambit of seeking early approval of a new Education Local Option Sales Tax in a low-key election paid big dividends on Tuesday with 83.6 percent of the 1,924 voters who cast a ballot approving.
Turnout was the lowest ever for any of the six Education Local Option Sales Tax referendums going back to 1997 and involved the second smallest number of voters.
The Northeast Health District saw a small drop in the rolling average of added cases of COVID-19 with the release of the Tuesday Daily Status Report and no change in the rolling average of added deaths from the disease.
The Department of Public Health reported 99 new cases of COVID-19 in the 10-county Northeast Health District, compared with 107 on Tuesday of last week, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases dropped to 80.7 from 81.9 on Monday.
The seven-day rolling average of added COVID-19 cases in the Northeast Health District continued to decline on Monday with the addition of 37 new cases of the disease and two deaths attributed to the coronavirus.
Monday and Sunday reports of the Department of Public Health follow light reporting days from labs and medical facilities around the state, and the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report last Monday contained 116 cases but only one death.
With the addition of only 38 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Sunday’s Daily Status Report--the smallest number since Nov. 16--the seven-day rolling average of added cases continued to decline in the Northeast Health District.
The District added no confirmed deaths from the disease, which had been the case on Sunday of last week as well, and the seven-day rolling average of 2.0 deaths per day remained unchanged. Sundays are light reporting from labs and medical facilities to the Department of Public Health.
The Northeast Health District added only 69 COVID-19 cases and one death from the disease on Saturday, and the seven-day rolling average of both continued to decline.
The Department of Public Health Daily Status Report listed the death of an 82-year-old male in Walton County with a chronic condition as the sole confirmed death, bringing to 216 the number of COVID-19 deaths in Walton County and to 820 in the District.
The seven-day rolling average of added deaths fell to 2.0 and now has declined three days in a row.
Only 1,282 voters cast a ballot in early voting, which ended Friday, or returned an absentee ballot, making it almost certain that a very small percentage of Oconee County’s 31,965 registered voters is going to decide the fate of a major educational tax referendum.
Oconee County Schools is asking citizens to approve a new Education Local Option Sales Tax–effectively continuing the one in place–and authorize issuance of general obligation bonds for up to $42,950,000 to finance construction of a list of new capital projects.
The Northeast Health District added five confirmed deaths from COVID-19 on Friday and only 77 new cases of the disease as the Department of Public Health Released its Daily Status Report.
Because the Department of Public Health eliminated four deaths in Barrow County it had previously listed as the result of COVID-19, the net addition of one death from the disease resulted in a drop in the seven-day rolling average of added deaths.
The seven-day rolling average of added cases also declined on Friday.
The Northeast Health District added six confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in Thursday’s Department of Public Health Daily Status Report and 145 new cases of the disease.
For the second day in a row, two of the added confirmed deaths were in Clarke County.
Oconee County added one confirmed COVID-19 death and Clarke added two as the 10-county Northeast Health District as a whole added six deaths from the disease with the release of the Wednesday Department of Public Health Daily Status Report.
With the addition of the six deaths, the seven-day rolling average of added confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in the 10-county Northeast Health District remained unchanged at 2.7. The District had added six deaths on Wednesday of last week.
The seven-day rolling average of added COVID-19 cases dropped dramatically with release of Wednesday’s Daily Status Report.
The rolling averages of added COVID-19 cases and confirmed deaths attributed to the disease fell in the Northeast Health District on Tuesday with only 107 new cases and no deaths reported by the Department of Public Health.
The District did add two “probable deaths” in Walton County, but without any added confirmed deaths, the seven-day rolling average of added deaths fell to 2.7 from 3.0 on Monday. The District had added two confirmed deaths on Tuesday of last week.
The Northeast Health District added 116 COVID-19 cases and one confirmed death from the disease with the release of the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report on Monday, resulting in small drops in the seven-day rolling averages of added cases and deaths.
The single confirmed death was of an 82-year-old Walton County female without a chronic condition. Her death brings to 212 the number of confirmed deaths in Walton County from the coronavirus and to 807 the number in the District.
Houston Gaines and Marcus Wiedower, who represent Oconee County in the Georgia House of Representatives, ended their Legislative Rundown column in The Oconee Enterprise on March 4 with this invitation.
“Constituent feedback is critical in decision making on all legislation,” they write. “As always, please reach out to us anytime.”
The pair’s weekly columns in the paper all end in a similar refrain and contain Gaines’ and Wiedower’s official email addresses and sometimes their telephone numbers.
The seven-day rolling average of added COVID-19 cases in the Northeast Health District increased on Sunday, and the rolling average of added deaths remained unchanged.
The Department of Public Health, in its Sunday Daily Status Report, listed 109 new cases of COVID-19, up from 99 a week ago, and the seven-day rolling average increased to 163.9 from 162.4 on Saturday.
The Report listed no new confirmed deaths from the disease in the District, as also was the case a week ago, and the seven-day rolling average on Sunday was 3.4, as it was on Saturday.
With the addition of 116 new COVID-19 cases and two death from the disease, the seven-day rolling averages of added cases and added confirmed deaths decreased on Saturday in the Northeast Health District.
The Department of Public Health reported confirmed deaths of a 43-year-old female in Clarke County without a chronic condition and of an 88-year-old male in Walton County, also without a chronic condition.
The Northeast Health District added 91 new cases of COVID-19 in the Department of Public Health’s Daily Status Report on Friday, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases fell for the second day in a row.
The 10-county District added four confirmed deaths, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths increased to 3.6 deaths per day from 3.1 on Thursday.
With the addition of 163 new COVID-19 cases in the Northeast Health District on Thursday, the seven-day rolling average of added cases fell slightly, halting an eight-day increase in the average.
The District added six deaths, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths also dropped on Thursday.
For the second day in a row, one of the added confirmed deaths in the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report was in Clarke County: a 62-year-old female without a chronic condition.
The attorney for Oconee County Schools has rejected the request made by representatives of the University of Georgia School of Law First Amendment Clinic that it live stream Board of Education meetings and provide access to those meetings for individuals who wish to attend virtually.
Phillip L. Hartley, a Gainesville attorney, said that the Georgia Open Meetings Act does not require “virtual transmission” of a “live meeting” unless the Board itself is meeting virtually under emergency conditions, as it did from April through July 6 of last year.
The Northeast Health District added 283 new COVID-19 cases and six confirmed deaths from the disease on Wednesday, pushing up for the eighth day running the seven-day rolling average of added cases.
The rolling average of added deaths fell from 4.3 on Tuesday to 3.6 on Wednesday, as the District had added 11 deaths last Wednesday.
Two of the added confirmed deaths were in Clarke County: a 70-year-old male without a chronic condition and a 90-plus-year-old female without a known chronic conditions.
In well-organized and coordinated presentations to the Oconee County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday evening, citizens in neighborhoods abutting the proposed Oconee Mercantile project on U.S. 441 said how they had relied on past county zoning decisions to protect their homes.
The proposed multi-use commercial development and accompanying relocation of The Stone Store not only would adversely affect their residential neighborhoods, they said, but they also would be contrary to what the county had promised with its past zoning decisions.
With the addition of 252 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, the seven-day rolling average of added cases increased in the Northeast Health District for the seventh day in a row.
The District added two confirmed deaths from the disease in the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths declined for the second day running.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday night likely will decide the future location of The Stone Store and, if the developers of the proposed U.S. 441 mixed-use project are to be believed, the viability of that project itself.
The Commissioners are scheduled to vote on a rezone request for just more than 23 acres on U.S. 441 across from the intersection of Hog Mountain Road as well as on a second related rezone and special use variance request for just less than six acres just north of that intersection.
The seven-day rolling average of added COVID-19 cases continued to increase in the Northeast Health District on Monday with the release of the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report.
The Department of Public Health listed 133 new cases of the disease in the District along with four new confirmed deaths from the disease.
The Northeast Health District added 99 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases increased for the fifth day in a row.
The District did not add any new deaths in the Sunday Daily Status Report of the Department of Public Health, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths remained unchanged at 5.4.
The Northeast Health District experienced an increase in the seven-day rolling average of added cases for the fourth day in a row on Saturday with the addition of 211 new cases of the disease.
The Daily Status Report listed three new confirmed deaths from the disease, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths declined on Saturday.
Construction is scheduled to begin in 2024 on four of nine intersection projects in Oconee County that are part of a massive effort to transform SR 316 into what the Georgia Department of Transportation is calling “a freeway-style corridor.”
Included in the initial construction is a “bundle” of projects that will include multi-grade intersections at the Oconee Connector and SR 316 and at Jimmy Daniell Road and SR 316.
The “bundle” also includes a bridge carrying Virgil Langford Road, currently blocked, across SR 316.
With the addition of only one confirmed COVID-19 death in Friday’s Daily Status Report, the seven-day rolling average of added deaths dropped sharply, but the seven-day rolling average of added cases increased for the third day in a row.
The Department of Public Health added 214 new COVID-19 cases in Friday’s Daily Status Report.
Oconee County Schools also reported an increase in the number of Active COVID-19 Cases and Active Quarantines Due To Close Contact.
For the second day in a row, the rolling averages of both confirmed COVID-19 deaths and cases of the disease increased in the Northeast Health District on Thursday with the release of the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report.
The District added nine new deaths from COVID-19 and 179 new cases of the disease.
The deaths included a 56-year-old male in Greene County with a chronic condition and an 86-year-old female in Jackson County without a chronic condition.
The seven-day rolling averages both of added COVID-19 deaths and of added cases increased in the Northeast Health District on Wednesday with the release of the Department of Public Health’s Daily Status Report.
The 10-county District added 11 confirmed deaths, including three in Clarke County, and 178 cases.
The Clarke County deaths were of a 64-year-old male, a 77-year-old male, and 90-plus-year-old male, none of whom had a chronic condition. Clarke County added two deaths on Tuesday and one on Monday and now has 112 confirmed COVID-19 deaths.
The Georgia Senate passed four bills on Tuesday, including two sponsored by Sen. Bill Cowsert, who represents Oconee County, making changes to Georgia’s election laws.
The bills now go to the House, which has its own more far-reaching bill under consideration that was sponsored by six Republican members of a Special Committee on Election Integrity.
Houston Gaines, who represents three of Oconee County’s 12 precincts in the Georgia House of Representatives, is a member of that Special Committee, which now will review it before House action.
The Northeast Health District added five confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in Tuesday’s Daily Status Report, with one of those in Oconee County and two in Clarke County.
The five deaths were down dramatically from the 16 added on Tuesday of last week, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths fell from 7.6 on Monday to 6.0 on Tuesday.
The seven-day rolling average of added cases also declined.
The Northeast Health District added nine confirmed COVID-19 deaths with the release of the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report on Monday, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths increased to 7.6 deaths per day.
The District added only 56 new cases of COVID-19, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases dropped to 128.6 cases per day.
The confirmed deaths were spread across six of the 10 counties in the Northeast Health District.
The Northeast Health District added only 78 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday and no deaths from the disease. The seven-day rolling average of added cases declined, while the seven-day rolling average of added deaths remained unchanged.
Sundays are light reporting days to the Department of Public Health from labs and agencies around the state, but last Sunday’s Daily Status Report had listed 92 new cases of the disease.
Oconee County Schools plans to sell general obligation bonds before the middle of June and move forward with building and then opening a third middle school in the Fall of 2023 if voters approve the sales tax referendum on the March 16 ballot.
The issue is being put before the voters early–the current sales tax authorization does not expire until the end of 2022–in order to take advantage of low interest rates and to avoid increased costs due to inflation, according to school officials.
The Northeast Health District added eight confirmed COVID-19 deaths, including one in Clarke County, with the release of the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report on Saturday, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths fell slightly.
The 10-county District also added 132 new cases of the disease, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases continued to decline.
Oconee County added its 56th confirmed COVID-19 deaths on Friday with the release of the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report.
The death was one of 12 confirmed deaths in the 10-county Northeast Health District, which also added 172 new cases of the disease.
The seven-day rolling average of added cases and confirmed deaths declined, as the District had added 210 cases and 16 deaths on Friday of last week.
On Jan. 11, Oconee County’s St. Gabriel of Athens personal care home off Virgil Langford Road reported to the Department of Community Health its first two deaths from COVID-19 among its residents.
On Jan. 20, St. Gabriel’s reported three more deaths from COVID-19, and on Jan. 26 it reported one more death.
The next day, Jan. 27, it reported two more, bringing its total to eight.
The seven-day rolling average of added COVID-19 deaths rose again in the Northeast Health District on Thursday as the Department of Public Health listed seven deaths in its Daily Status Report.
The seven-day rolling average of added cases continued to decline.
The deaths were of a 69-year-old female and a 90-plus-year-old male in Elbert County, an 87-year-old male in Greene County, an 81-year-old female in Jackson County, a 90-plus-year-old female in Morgan County, and a 72-year-old male and an 88-year-old male in Walton County.
The Northeast Health District added 139 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday and one confirmed death from the disease, resulting in declines in the seven-day rolling averages of both cases and deaths.
The confirmed death was of an 83-year-old female with a chronic condition in Madison County. The death brings to 35 the number in the county attributed to the virus.
The Northeast Health District added 16 confirmed COVID-19 Deaths on Tuesday, the second highest number recorded on a single day, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths increased.
The District, in Tuesday’s Department of Public Health Daily Status Report, added 167 new cases of the disease, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases dropped again after a one-day increase on Monday.
The Northeast Health District added 143 new cases of COVID-19 with the release of Monday’s Department of Public Health Daily Status Report and two confirmed deaths from the disease.
The addition of the new cases resulted in an increase in the seven-day rolling average of added cases to 174.7 from 170.9 on Sunday. The District had added 116 cases last Monday.
The addition of the two confirmed deaths resulted in a decrease in the seven-day rolling average of added deaths to 5.9 on Monday from 6.3 on Sunday. The District had added five deaths on Monday of last week.
The Department of Public Health listed only 92 new cases of COVID-19 and no new deaths from the disease in the Northeast Health District with the release of the Daily Status Report on Sunday.
Sundays are light reporting days, but the 92 new cases are less than half of the 186 reported last Sunday, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases dropped to 170.9 on Sunday from 184.3 on Saturday.
The seven-day rolling average of added confirmed COVID-19 deaths and of added cases of the disease declined in the Northeast Health District on Saturday with the addition of nine new confirmed deaths from the disease and 182 new cases.
The Department of Public Health had reported 15 deaths on Saturday of last week, and, with the addition of the nine confirmed deaths, the seven-day rolling average of added deaths dropped to 6.3 on Saturday from 7.1 on Friday.
One of the added confirmed deaths was of a 56-year-old male without a chronic condition in Oconee County. The county now has 53 confirmed deaths from the disease. Oconee County also had added a death on Friday.
The Northeast Health District added 16 confirmed deaths from COVID-19 with the release of the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report on Friday, reversing the decline in the seven-day rolling average of added deaths from the disease.
The Daily Status Report included 210 new cases of COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District, and the rolling average of added cases continued to decline, falling for the 14th day in a row.
Oconee County Schools on Friday reported an increase in the number of Active Cases but a decline in the number of Active Quarantines from the disease.
COVID-19 deaths and cases continued to drop in the 10-county Northeast Health District on Thursday with the release of the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report.
The Report listed three confirmed deaths from the disease and 217 new cases, and the seven-day rolling average of both confirmed deaths and cases were down from the day before.
Included among the three confirmed deaths was a 90-plus-year old male in Clarke County without a chronic condition.
The Northeast Health District added six confirmed deaths from COVID-19 and 165 new cases of the disease with the release of the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report on Wednesday.
The seven-day rolling average of added deaths has now declined for three days running, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases has declined for 12 days in a row.
The Northeast Health District recorded five confirmed COVID-19 deaths in Tuesday’s Daily Status Report from the Department of Public Health and 214 new cases of the disease.
One of those five confirmed deaths was in Oconee County, and two were in Clarke County. The remaining two were in Walton County.
The seven-day rolling average of both confirmed deaths and cases in the 10-count Northeast Health District fell again on Tuesday.
John Phillips told the members of the Oconee County Board of Education on Monday that they need to exert direct leadership and oversight of the management of the school district.
He also said the Board should commission an unbiased survey of parents and conduct and commission an independent study of the leadership culture, decision-making, and communications of the current school administration.
The seven-day rolling average of added COVID-19 cases and deaths declined in the Northeast Health District on Monday as the Department of Public Health reported only 116 new cases and five confirmed deaths from the disease.
The confirmed deaths included a 59-year-old male in Clarke County without a chronic condition bringing to 98 the number of deaths in the county from COVID-19 since the pandemic began last year.
The Northeast Health District added 186 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday and no new deaths from the disease with the release of the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report.
The seven-day rolling average of added cases dropped just slightly, from 251.3 on Saturday to 250.1 on Sunday, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths was unchanged, with an average of 8.6 added deaths per day.
Representatives of the First Amendment Clinic in the School of Law at the University of Georgia are asking the Oconee County Board of Education to change its policies to recognize the first amendment rights of Oconee County community members.
In a nine-page-long letter sent to an attorney for the School Board on Friday, the clinic members asked the Board to live stream its meetings, provide video captioning of uploaded videos of meetings, and provide access for community members who wish to attend meetings virtually.
The Department of Public Health added 15 confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District with release of Saturday’s Daily Status Report.
The deaths were spread across six of the 10 counties in the District, with Clarke County adding two. Clarke County has added five deaths in the last three days.
The 15 deaths were not a record. That record was 19 and was set on Saturday of last week.
One of the three confirmed deaths from COVID-19 reported by the Georgia Department of Public Health in its Northeast Health District on Friday was in Clarke County, bringing to three the number of deaths in the county from the disease in the last two days.
The Department of Public Health, in its Friday Daily Status Report, listed 226 new cases of COVID-19, and the seven-day rolling average of both added confirmed deaths and added cases declined.
Oconee County and Clarke County both added confirmed COVID-19 deaths with the release of Thursday’s Department or Public Health Daily Status Report.
The Northeast Health District as a whole added nine confirmed deaths and 306 cases of COVID-19, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths increased while the seven-day rolling average of added cases continued to decline.
A confirmed death was recorded in seven of the 10 counties in the Northeast Health District.
The Oconee County Board of Education tightly controls public comment at its meetings.
Citizens are not given an opportunity to speak at work sessions.
Those who register in advance are given five minutes to speak to the Board at the end of the regular meetings in what is termed the Public Communication section. Those who don’t register in advance are given three minutes.
Generally, few use either opportunity.
Seven of the 10 counties in the Northeast Health District reported a COVID-19 death on Wednesday with the release of the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report.
The total number of added confirmed COVID-19 deaths in the Daily Status Report was 14, and the Report added 325 new cases of the disease.
One of those confirmed deaths was of an 80-year-old male with a chronic condition in Oconee County.
Both Oconee County and Clarke County reported two confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in the Tuesday Department of Public Health Daily Status Report.
The Northeast Health District as a whole reported 12 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and 362 cases with the release of the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report.
The Department of Community Health also reported two deaths at area long-term care facilities in the Northeast Health District. Both were in Clarke County.
The number of added cases of COVID-19 continued to drop in the Northeast Health District on Monday while the number of deaths from the disease continued to increase.
The Department of Public Health Daily Status Report listed seven new confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in the 10-county District, while the Department of Community Health listed an additional death in its report on area long-term care facilities.
One of the confirmed deaths in Department of Public Health Report was in Clarke County and was of a 73-year-old female without a chronic condition. She is the 90th confirmed death from COVID-19 in Clarke County.
The seven-day rolling average of added COVID-19 cases continued to decline in the Northeast Health District with the release of the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report on Sunday, while the average of added deaths remained unchanged.
The District added just 194 new cases, compared with 271 added on Sunday of last week, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases fell to 358.6 on Sunday from 369.6 on Saturday.
The Northeast Health District listed 19 confirmed COVID-19 deaths in the Saturday Department of Public Health Daily Status Report–a new record–and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths in the 10-county District is just less than 10 deaths per day.
Deaths lag cases, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases declined on Saturday.
Four of the 19 added confirmed deaths were in Clarke County, which now has 89 deaths attributed to the disease.
The Northeast Health District added 12 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and 442 new cases of the disease with the release of the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report on Friday. The seven-day rolling average of added deaths and cases increased slightly.
The confirmed deaths were spread across six of the 10 counties in the Northeast Health District and included a death of an 81-year-old female in Clarke County without a chronic condition. Clarke County now has 85 deaths from the coronavirus.
The Department of Public Health recorded seven new confirmed deaths from COVID-19 and 395 new cases of the disease in the 10 counties of the Northeast Health District with the release of the Daily Status Report on Thursday.
The seven-day rolling averages of added confirmed deaths and added cases both declined on Thursday.
The seven confirmed deaths in the Daily Status Report consisted of one death each in Barrow, Greene, and Jackson counties and four deaths in Walton County.
The Northeast Health District added a record 16 confirmed deaths in Wednesday’s Department of Public Health Daily Status Report, with one of them in Oconee County. Eleven of those deaths were in Walton County.
In addition, the District added six deaths in the Department of Community Health Long-Term Care Report. Two of those were in Oconee County.
The District added 341 new cases of the disease, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases declined on Wednesday from Tuesday.
The Oconee County Library Board of Trustees voted 9 to 2 On Monday to move the Oconee County Library from its current location at 1080 Experiment Station Road on the northwest side of Watkinsville to the commercial redevelopment project called Wire Park on the southeast of the city.
In taking the action, the Board reversed a decision it had made by an 8 to 2 vote in July of 2019 to move the library to the county’s planned administrative building just outside the city’s northern boundaries.
The Northeast Health District added 13 confirmed deaths from COVID-19 on Tuesday and 571 new cases of the disease with the release of the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report. The seven-day rolling average of added deaths and cases increased.
In addition, the Department of Community Health listed two deaths in the Northeast Health District in its Long-Term Care Facility Report.
Three of the confirmed deaths listed in the Daily Status Report were in Clarke County. One of the deaths in the Long-Term Care Facility Report was in Oconee County.
The Northeast Health District added 209 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, according to the Department of Public Health, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases dropped for the second day in a row.
The District added two confirmed deaths in the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report, and the seven-day rolling average of added confirmed deaths remained unchanged.
The Department of Community Health also reported two deaths at area long term care facilities on Monday.
The Department of Public Health listed 271 new cases of COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District in Sunday’s Daily Status Report, down from the 325 listed on Sunday of last week, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases dropped to 438.9 from 446.6 on Saturday.
The Daily Status Report did not include any new deaths in the Northeast Health District, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths remained unchanged at 7.1 deaths per day. Sundays are light reporting days, and the District also did not have any new deaths listed on Sunday of last week.
The Oconee County Library Board of Trustees is holding a called meeting at 4:30 p.m. on Monday at the Bogart Library to discuss and likely make a decision on a new location for the library in Watkinsville.
The called meeting follows the regular meeting of the Board on Jan. 11 at which it heard presentations on two different proposals for sites of the Oconee County Library now at 1080 Experiment Station Road in Watkinsville.
The Northeast Health District recorded seven confirmed deaths from COVID-19 and 651 new cases of the disease on Saturday with release of the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report .
In a reversal of trends, the seven-day rolling average of confirmed deaths fell slightly, while the seven-day rolling average of added cases increased.
The property owner seeking to build a shopping center on the Oconee Connector and Mars Hill Road has requested a deferral of the public hearing on its rezone request scheduled before the Oconee County Board of Commissioners on Feb. 2.
Deferred Tax LLC of Lawrenceville said it needs time to respond to comments from Tuesday’s Oconee County Planning Commission meeting.
The Planning Commission voted 8 to 0 to recommend that the Board of Commissioners deny the rezone request from Deferred Tax LLC for just less than 47 acres at the corner of Mars Hill Road and the Oconee Connector for a shopping center that would include a Publix.
The Northeast Health District added 10 confirmed deaths from COVID-19 on Friday with the release of the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report and 425 new cases of the disease.
The seven-day rolling average of added confirmed deaths held steady at 7.3 deaths per day, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases dropped to 420.7 from 450.0 on Thursday.
The Department of Community Health listed two additional deaths in the area’s long-term care facilities. One of those was in Oconee County.
Daniells Bridge Road will be closed to through traffic from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday for construction at the bridge over Barber Creek of the terminus of a new sewer line.
The construction on Saturday is unrelated to the ongoing construction along Daniells Bridge Road of a new gas line. That construction has resulted in periodic one-way traffic on the road.
On Saturday, barricades will be set up at Natalie Drive/Birchmore Drive on the north and Downs Creek subdivision on the south, and no traffic will be allowed beyond those points during the construction hours.
The Northeast Health District added 13 confirmed COVID-19 deaths–a new record–with the release of the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report on Thursday as well as 547 new cases of the disease.
The Department of Community Health reported two additional deaths in the Northeast Health District in its Long-Term Care Facility Report on Thursday.
Two of the confirmed deaths in the Daily Status Report were in Oconee County, which also had a confirmed death in the Wednesday Report, and the county now has 45 confirmed deaths from COVID-19.
State health reports on Friday listed 14 previously unreported deaths from COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District as well as 422 new cases of the disease.
Four of those deaths–one in the Department of Public Health Report and three in the Department of Community Health Report–were in Oconee County.
The Oconee County death listed in the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report was of a 78-year-old male with a chronic condition. Department of Public Health listings are of confirmed COVID-19 deaths, and Oconee County now has 43 such deaths.
The Oconee County Planning Commission voted 8 to 0 on Tuesday night to recommend to the Board of Commission that it deny the rezone request for a major shopping center at the intersection of Mars Hill Road and the Oconee Connector.
The Commission took its vote after a relatively short discussion following a public hearing in which citizens voiced strong opposition to the project, raising concerns about the environmental impact of the project and about traffic created by it.
The Northeast Health District recorded a record 12 confirmed deaths from COVID-19 with the release on Tuesday of the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report.
The added deaths resulted in a jump in the seven-day rolling average of added, confirmed deaths to 7.7 deaths per day, up from 6.6 deaths per day on Monday.
The Daily Status Report also listed 489 new COVID-19 cases, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases dropped to 476.9 from 494.3 on Monday.
The Northeast Health District added 267 new COVID-19 cases on Monday and two deaths from the disease. The seven-day rolling average of added cases continued to decline, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths continued to increase.
The two deaths were of an 84-year-old male in Clarke County with a chronic condition and of a 77-year-old female in Walton County with a chronic condition.
The deaths bring to 77 the number from COVID-19 in Clarke County and to 104 the number from the disease in Walton County.
The developer of a proposed shopping center at the intersection of Mars Hill Road and the Oconee Connector has rejected a compromise offered by the county’s planning staff regarding an entrance to the commercial complex off the Oconee Connector.
The county planning staff recommended that the proposed entrance allow only right-in and right-out traffic, rather than the complete signalized entrance the developer had sought.
At present, the 47-acre parcel does not have any access off the Connector.
The Northeast Health District added 325 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday with the release of the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report, resulting in a drop in the seven-day rolling average of added cases for the fourth day in a row.
The Sunday Daily Status Report did not include any new deaths from the coronavirus, as had been the case on Sunday a week ago, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths remained unchanged at 6.4 deaths per day.
The Department of Public Health listed eight additional confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District in its Saturday Daily Status Report, bringing to 475 the total number of confirmed deaths from the disease in the 10-county District.
The District also added 470 new COVID-19 cases, bringing down the seven-day rolling average of added cases.
The District has added 45 deaths in the last seven days, for a seven-day rolling average of 6.4, up from 5.9 on Friday.
In voting for the Jan. 5 runoff, fewer than one in four of the 23,565 Oconee County voters who cast a ballot did so on election day, according to the official election results certified by the Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration early Tuesday evening.
Nearly six in 10 of the voters participated in early in-person voting, and nearly two in 10 voted by absentee ballot.
Republican U.S. Sen. David Perdue got 68.9 percent of the overall vote in the county on Jan. 5, and eventual statewide winner Democrat John Ossoff received 31.1 percent.
Perdue got 79.7 percent of the vote on election day and 71.6 percent of those voting advanced in-person, however, he received only 46.4 percent of the absentee ballot vote.
The Northeast Health District added 10 confirmed COVID-19 deaths in the Friday Department of Public Health Daily Status Report, bringing to 37 the number of deaths in the District added since Sunday and lifting the seven-day rolling average of added deaths to 5.9 from 5.3 on Thursday.
Three of the newly added deaths were in Clarke County.
The Department of Community Health also reported four deaths in the Northeast Health District in its Friday Long-Term Care Facility Report. That report has added 20 deaths at long-term facilities in the District since Sunday.
The District also added 630 new cases of COVID-19 in the Monday Daily Status Report.
The Northeast Health District added 11 confirmed COVID-19 deaths in the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report on Thursday, the second day in a row 11 confirmed deaths from the disease were recorded in the District.
In addition, the Department of Community Health listed five previously unreported deaths for the Northeast Health District in its Long-Term Care Facility Report on Thursday.
The Daily Status Report added 500 new case of the disease in the 10-county District.
The Northeast Health District has a record 11 confirmed deaths attributed to COVID-19 in the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report on Wednesday. Four of those deaths were in Clarke County, and another was in Oconee County.
Six of the 10 counties in the Northeast Health District recorded a death from the disease.
The Oconee County death was of an 81-year-old male without a chronic condition.
The Clarke County deaths were of a 76-year-old male with a chronic condition, a 78-year-old female without a chronic condition, an 84-year-old female with a chronic condition, and 90-plus-year old female without a chronic condition.
The Northeast Health District added five deaths attributed to COVID-19 in state health reports released on Tuesday and 611 new cases of COVID-19.
The Department of Public Health Daily Status Report listed four of the deaths: of a 37-year-old male in Barrow county without a known chronic condition, of a 62-year-old female in Jackson County without a chronic condition, of a 77-year-old female in Jackson County with a chronic condition, and of a 90-plus-year-old male in Walton County with a chronic condition.
The Northeast Health District added 399 COVID-19 cases and 11 deaths from the disease with the release on Monday of the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report and the Department of Community Health Long-Term Care Facility Report.
Area hospitals also reported record numbers of patients with the disease and record demand for Intensive Care Unit beds and ventilators.
Representatives of the Watkinsville City Council and the Oconee County Board of Commissioners are scheduled to make separate presentations to the Oconee County Library Board of Trustees at its 4:30 p.m. meeting on Monday on competing sites for a new Oconee County Library.
The Library Board voted in July of 2019 to move the Oconee County Library from its current location at 1080 Experiment Station Road in Watkinsville to the planned new county administrative building at the intersection of U.S. 441 and SR 15 (North Main Street).
The Northeast Health District added 507 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, resulting in an increase in the seven-day rolling average of added cases per day to 559.0 from 550.7 on Saturday.
The 10-county Northeast Health District did not add any deaths from the virus in Sunday’s Department of Public Health Daily Status Report, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths remained unchanged at 2.9.
The Northeast Health District added 730 new COVID-19 cases and four deaths from the disease with the release of the Georgia Department of Public Health Daily Status Report on Saturday.
The seven-day rolling average of added cases increased again in the 10-county Northeast Health District after a brief lull, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths also increased, showing an clear uptick in deaths after a longer plateauing of that statistic.
The Northeast Health District added 769 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday with the release of the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report as well as six deaths attributed to the disease.
The Department of Community Health listed a seventh death in its Long-Term Care Facility Report for Friday.
The addition of the 769 new cases in the Daily Status Report resulted in a seven-day rolling average of added cases of 514.1, up from 501.6 on Thursday.
The Northeast Health District added a confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in Clarke County and in Walton County on Thursday, resulting in a very slight increase in the seven-day rolling average of added deaths in the District. The District also added 541 new cases of the disease.
The Clarke County death was of an 86-year-old male without a chronic condition. The Walton County death was of a 78-year-old male, also without a chronic condition.
The Northeast Health District added 10 deaths from COVID-19 in two state health reports on Wednesday and added 447 new cases of the disease.
The Department of Public Health Daily Status Report–which lists the official confirmed deaths from COVID-19–recorded two deaths on Wednesday in Clarke County and two deaths in Barrow County.
The Georgia Department of Public Health added four deaths from COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District in the Tuesday Status Report along with 681 new cases of the disease.
In addition, the Department of Community Health on Tuesday listed in its Long-Term Care Facility Report 10 new resident deaths, 48 new cases among residents, and 14 new cases among staff of the Northeast Health District’s long-term care facilities.
Included were long-term care facilities in both Clarke and Oconee counties.
Republican U.S. Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler won Oconee County in unofficial but complete election returns Tuesday, but the percentage of the votes the two received were less than a point higher than the percentages their party candidates received in November.
In contrast, Democrat Jon Ossoff increased his percent of the Oconee County vote in the race with Perdue from 29.7 to 31.1, and Democrat Raphael Warnock in the race with Loeffler received 31.8 percent of the vote on Tuesday compared with the 30.2 percent figure for all Democrats in the special election on Nov. 3.
The Northeast Health District added only 238 new cases of COVID-19 with the release of the Daily Status Report of the Department of Public Health on Monday, but the seven-day rolling average of added cases increased from Sunday.
Oconee County added 18 cases, and Clarke County added 44, and in both counties the seven-day rolling average of added cases increased.
Monday’s are usually light reporting days, and the number of cases added on Monday was larger than the number added on Monday a week ago.
Andrea Wellnitz is persistent.
“I’m coming before you today for the fourth time to bring my concerns to you,” Wellnitz said as she began her comments as a registered speaker to the Board of Education at its final meeting of last year.
Wellnitz said she had a number of concerns and had made a number of requests, including that the Board, Superintendent Jason Branch, or other administrators tell her what the “threshold” is for deciding to move from in-person instruction to hybrid instruction or full remote learning in light of the increase in COVID-19 cases.
The seven-day rolling averages of added COVID-19 cases increased in Oconee and Clarke counties on Sunday and in the Northeast Health District as a whole with the release of the Daily Status Report by the Georgia Department of Public Health.
Oconee County added 39 cases, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases increased to 49.6, the highest average to date. The average had been 46.4 on Saturday.
Clarke County added 97 cases, and the seven-day rolling average increased from 84.1 on Saturday to 93.1 on Sunday. The 93.1 figure is a new high for Clarke County as well.
The Northeast Health District added 474 new cases of COVID-19 with the release of the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report on Saturday and two deaths from the disease–in Oconee and Jackson counties.
The Oconee County death was of a male of unspecified age without a known chronic condition.
The death brings to 41 the number from the disease in the county and puts the county’s death rate at 98.2 per 100,000 population, the third highest in the 10-county Northeast Health District, behind only much smaller (in terms of population) Greene and Elbert counties.
Nearly six in 10 of Oconee County’s active voters already had cast a ballot in the Jan. 5 runoff elections at the end of early voting on Thursday.
In the 12 days of early voting itself, 13,477 voters had gone to the Civic Center to select candidates in the two U.S. Senate runoff races and the state Public Service Commission runoff.
In addition, 4,040 had returned an absentee ballot, for a total of 17,517 votes cast, or 57.4 percent of the county’s 30,542 active voters or 54.8 percent of the county’s 31,985 registered voters.
With the addition of 681 new cases of COVID-19 in state reports on Friday, the seven-day rolling average of added cases in the Northeast Health District increased to 467.0 cases per day, the highest ever recorded.
The average had been 412.6 on Thursday, when 625 new cases were added.
Oconee County added 57 cases and Clarke County added 101. The seven-day rolling average of added cases in Oconee County increased from 40.0 on Thursday to 45.1 on Friday, the highest level ever recorded.
