Saturday, January 02, 2021

Northeast Health District Adds 474 New COVID-19 Cases, Two Deaths From Disease; Area Hospitals See Large Increase In COVID Patients

***Seven-Day Rolling Averages Of Added Cases Increase***

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.

The Jackson County death was of a 45-year-old male without a chronic condition. Jackson County now has 64 deaths from the disease, for a death rate of 85.7 per 100,000 population.

The Oconee and Jackson deaths bring to 410 the number in the Northeast Health District, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths in the District on Saturday was 1.7, down from 1.9 on Friday.

With the addition of the 474 new cases, the seven-day rolling average of added cases in the District increased on Saturday to 491.6 from 467.0 on Friday.

Oconee County added 37 cases and Clarke County added 107. The seven-day rolling average of added cases in Oconee County increased from 45.1 on Friday to 46.4 on Saturday, and the seven-day rolling average in Clarke County increased from 75.0 on Friday to 84.1 on Saturday.

The Georgia Hospital Association (GHA) and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA) reported on Saturday that the number of COVID-19 patients at area hospitals (264) increased by 16 from the day before, the number of ICU beds in use (70) decreased by three from the day before, and the number of adult ventilators in use (48) increased by two from the day before.

The number of COVID-19 patients at area hospitals has increased each day since Dec. 23 and at 264 is the highest level ever recorded. COVID-19 patients make up 41.6 percent of the patients in the hospitals, the highest percentage ever recorded. The state figure on Saturday was 29.7 percent, also a new record.

Area hospitals have expanded their ICU capacity to handle the demand and now report having 74 beds available, rather than the usual 70.

The GMA data are reported as being current as of the beginning of the day on Saturday. The data are for Region E of GEMA, which consists of the 10 counties of the Northeast Health District plus Hart and Franklin counties and has nine hospitals covered by the report. The largest and dominant hospitals with the vast majority of the beds are the two in Clarke County.

State Data

The Daily Status Report added 7,733 new cases of COVID-19 across the state of Georgia on Saturday, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases increased from 7,800.6 on Friday to 8,284.7 on Saturday.

The two deaths from the Northeast Health District were the only two added across the state on Saturday, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths dropped from 34.1 on Friday to 26.7 on Saturday.

The two deaths were on Dec. 27 and Jan. 2, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths based on date of occurrence increased slightly on Saturday from Friday.

Across the state, the Georgia Hospital Association (GHA) and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA) reported on Saturday that the number of COVID-19 patients (4,732) increased from the day before, the number of ICU beds in use (2,616) increased from the day before, and the number of adult ventilators in use (1,486) decreased from the day before.

The Centers for Disease and Control COVID Data Tracker on Saturday reported that 75,157 Georgians had received the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, up from 50,980 on Friday. The state has received 445,550 doses of the vaccine, up from 376,325 on Friday.

These data on vaccine distributions and receipt are not available on the CDC site at the county level.

The Department of Community Health did not issue its Long-Term Care Facility Report on Saturday.

Charts

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 Saturday.

Click on the charts to enlarge them.

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