Northeast Health District Added 371 New COVID-19 Cases And 10 Confirmed Deaths For Disease In Last Week

***Weekly Average Of Added Cases Down***

The 10-county Northeast Health District added 371 new cases of COVID-19 in the last seven days ending on Friday, or an average of 53.0 cases per day, and 10 confirmed deaths attributed to the disease, or an average of 1.4 deaths per day.

In the week ending on Friday of last week, April 23, the District had added 413 cases, or an average of 59.0 cases per day, and eight confirmed deaths attributed to COVID-19, or an average of 1.1 deaths per day.

Oconee County added 22 COVID-19 cases during the week ending on Friday, and Clarke County added 66. The seven-day average of added cases in Oconee County was 3.1. In Clarke County that average was 9.4.

In the week ending on April 23, Oconee County added 26 cases and Clarke County added 89. The seven-day average of added cases in Oconee County last Friday was 3.7, while in Clarke County it was 12.7.

Two of the added confirmed COVID-19 deaths in the last week were in Oconee County, both reported on last Saturday.

One of those deaths was in Clarke County, reported on Wednesday.

The Oconee deaths were of a 62-year-old male with a chronic condition and a 74-year-old male without a chronic condition.

The Clarke County death was of a 90-plus-year-old male without a chronic condition.

The Northeast Health District also added two “probable” deaths from COVID-19 in the week ending on Friday.

All of these data come from the Department of Public Health Daily Status Reports.

Long-Term Care Facility, Oconee School, University Reports

The Department of Community Health, in its Long-Term Care Facility Report on Friday, listed five additional cases of COVID-19 among residents of the 44 facilities in the Northeast Health District covered by the Report and two additional cases among staff of those facilities.

Click To Enlarge

This is based on a comparison of the Department of Community Health Report on Friday with the one it issued on Thursday of last week. The Department did not issue its Report on Friday of last week.

The resident cases were at facilities in Greene and Walton Counties. One of the staff cases was at The Oaks–Athens Skilled Nursing in Clarke County, while the other was in Walton County.

Oconee County Schools on Friday, in its COVID-19 Status Report, listed two Active COVID-19 cases and 17 Active Quarantines Due to Close Contact.

Last Friday, Oconee County Schools reported three Active COVID-19 cases and eight individuals in Active Quarantine.

Oconee County Schools does not provide any additional information on cases or quarantines at the schools, but it does inform parents of students at the schools when a case has been detected.

At 7:11 p.m. on April 27, Oconee County High School Principal Kevin Yancey told parents of students at that school that “an individual” had tested positive for COVID-19.

The University of Georgia on Wednesday, in its COVID-19 Health and Exposure Update, listed a total of 15 positive COVID-19 tests, down from 36 a week earlier,, with eight of those positive tests having been administered locally, compared with 19 a week earlier.

The University also reported that 576 individuals were tested at the walk-in Legion Field site, down from 776 a week earlier, and that the positivity rate for those volunteer tests increased to 1.0 from 0.9 the week before.

Hospital, Vaccine Updates

The Georgia Hospital Association and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency reported on Friday that the number of COVID-19 patients at area hospitals was 33, the number of ICU beds in use was 62, and the number of adult ventilators in use was 32.

Click To Enlarge

On last Friday, the number of COVID-19 patients was 37, the number of ICU beds in use was 59, and the number of adult ventilators in use was 31.

The Department of Public Health Vaccine Distribution Dashboard lists, by county, the number of vaccines administered, the number of residents with at least one dose of the vaccine, and the number of residents fully vaccinated.

In the 10-county Northeast Health District, Oconee County has the highest rate of residents with at least one dose (39.4 percent) and the highest percentage fully vaccinated (32.2 percent).

Clarke County has 31.7 percent of its residents with at least one dose and 25.4 percent fully vaccinated.

A week ago, Oconee County also was at the top of the District, with 31.4 percent of its residents with at least one dose and 26.8 percent fully vaccinated.

On April 23, 22.7 percent of Clarke County’s residents had at least one dose of the vaccines and 19.4 percent were fully vaccinated.

For the District as a whole, 33.2 percent of the residents had at least one dose of a vaccine on Friday and 24.4 percent were fully vaccinated.

Last week, those figures were 32.0 with at least one dose and 21.5 fully vaccinated.

These percentages are different from those shown on the Vaccine Distribution Dashboard.

I have used the population estimates used by the Department of Public Health in the Daily Status Report rather than the lower population estimates that the Department of Public Health uses in the Vaccine Distribution Dashboard.