Saturday, March 20, 2021

Northeast Health District Adds 57 COVID-19 Cases And Two Deaths From Disease; Oconee Reported First Case One Year Ago

***Another Positive Test At Malcom Bridge Middle School***

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 District added two deaths attributed to the disease–in Morgan and Walton counties–and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths increased slightly, to 2.4 from 2.3 on Friday. The District now has 837 confirmed COVID-19 deaths.

The Morgan County death, the 19th in the county, was of a 63-year-old male with a chronic condition.

The Walton County death, of a 67-year-old male without a chronic condition, was the 221st in that county.

Walton County has the most confirmed COVID-19 deaths in the District, and Morgan County the least. The Walton County death rate (2.3 per 1,000 population) is the third highest in the District (following Elbert and Greene counties, in that order).

Morgan County’s death rate of 1.0 per 1,000 is the second lowest. Clarke County’s death rate (with 120 deaths) is 0.9 per 1,000. Oconee County’s death rate (with 60 confirmed deaths) is 1.4 per 1,000, or below the average of 1.6 in the District.

Cases, Hospital Report, Vaccinations

With the addition of the seven cases in Oconee County, the seven-day rolling average fell to 11.3 from 12.3 on Friday.

Clarke County added eight cases, and its seven-day rolling average of added cases decreased to 11.4 from 11.9 on Friday.

Malcom Bridge Middle School Principal Michael Eddy sent parents of students in that school an email at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday informing them that “an individual” in the school had tested positive for COVID-19.

Eddy had informed parents at 6:33 p.m. on Friday that “three individuals” in the school had tested positive and sent similar notes regarding four other “individuals” since March 13.

In Friday’s Weekly Status Report, Oconee County School Superintendent Jason Branch announced that the schools had 27 Active COVID-19 Cases and 140 Active Quarantines Due To Close Contact.

Branch reported 14 Active Cases and 70 Active Quarantines a week earlier.

The Department of Community Health does not issue a Long-Term Care Facilities Report on the weekends.

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 (52) was unchanged from the day before, the number of ICU beds in use (61) decreased by four from the day before, and the number of adult ventilators in use (38) was unchanged from the day before.

The Northeast Health District added 3,331 new vaccinations on Saturday, up from 3,062 on Friday.

The ratio of number of vaccinations administered per person in the District is 0.21. That compares with a ratio of 0.29 in the state.

The gap between the state and the Northeast Health District increased again on Saturday, meaning the District is falling behind the state overall in administration of the vaccines.

Early Timeline

The Department of Public Health began issuing its Daily Status Report on March 15, and the Report for March 20 listed the first COVID-19 confirmed case in Oconee County.

Confirmed cases then and now are based on molecular tests.

In those early days, the Daily Status Report was issued at various times during the day, and frequently more than once a day.

The raw data files that the Department of Public Health now releases shows that the first case actually was reported to the Department of March 19.

The actual onset of the disease for that first case has been dated by the Department of Public Health for Feb. 18.

The first case in the county, based on a rapid antigen test, was Feb. 1, according to the historical record. The date is for the onset of the disease.

The Department of Public Health only released results of antigen tests starting on Nov. 3, so that first case was not public until the record files were released late last year.

The first confirmed COVID-19 death in Oconee County was on May 1, and the first report of that death was on May 18.

I did my first post on COVID-19 on March 19, followed by posts on March 21, 23 and 24. I began posting a daily COVID-19 report for the county on March 27 and have produced a report every day since.

State Data

Across the state, the Department of Public Health added 1,864 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases increased to 1,706.3 from 1,636.9 on Friday.

The Daily Status Report added 50 confirmed COVID-19 deaths across the state on Saturday, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths increased to 40.3 from 39.0 on Friday.

Only 15 of the added deaths occurred in the last 14 days, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths listed by day of occurrence decreased slightly from Friday.

The Department of Public Health added 16 “probable” deaths from COVID-19 in Saturday’s Daily Status Report, and the seven-day rolling average of added “probable” deaths increased to 5.9 from 5.1 on Friday.

The Georgia Hospital Association (GHA) and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA) reported on Saturday that the number of COVID-19 patients (1,213) at the state’s hospitals decreased from the day before, the number of ICU beds in use (2,370) decreased from the day before, and the number of adult ventilators in use (1,055) decreased from the day before.

The Department of Public Health reported on Saturday the administration of 90,044 vaccinations, up from 88,865 on Friday.

The Department of Public Health did not report any new allocation or shipment of doses of the vaccine to the state on Saturday.

As of Saturday, 96.4 percent of the allocated doses had been shipped, and 85.0 percent of the doses shipped to the state had been administered.

Charts

The charts below show the seven-day rolling average of the addition of COVID-19 molecular and antigen cases combined for the Northeast Health District and for the state of Georgia since Nov. 3, when the state first began reporting antigen test results.

The data in the charts come from the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report and have been updated for the 2:50 p.m. Report on Saturday.

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