Friday, April 16, 2021

Northeast Health District Adds 66 Cases of COVID-19 And Three Deaths From Disease; Rolling Averages Little Changed

***Oconee Schools Report Only Two Active COVID-19 Cases***

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.

Oconee County added only two COVID-19 cases, and the seven-day rolling average fell to 3.7 from 4.0 on Thursday. Clarke County added 12 cases, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases fell in that county to 12.9 from 13.7 on Thursday.

The District added three confirmed deaths from COVID-19, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths fell to 1.3 from 1.4 on Thursday.

The deaths were of an 81-year-old male in Barrow County with a chronic condition, a 79-year-old female in Greene County without a chronic condition, and a 53-year-old female in Walton County with a chronic condition.

The 10-county District now has 901 confirmed deaths attributed to coronavirus since the onset of the pandemic last February.

Schools, Hospitals, Long-Term Care Homes

Oconee County Schools, in its COVID-19 Status Report on Friday, listed only two Active Cases of the disease in the system’s 11 schools and only eight Active Quarantines.

Click To Enlarge

Two weeks ago, Oconee County Schools reported eight Active Cases and 31 Active Quarantines. The system was on break last week and did not issue a report.

The two Active Cases are the fewest ever reported in the Friday Status Report since the beginning of the school year last summer, and the eight Active Quarantines are the fewest reported since Oct. 23 of last year.

Oconee County Schools does not provide any information on those who tested positive or on the schools where the positive tests were identified.

The school system does send notices to parents of students in schools where the positive tests are recorded, and parents at High Shoals Elementary School and at Colham Ferry Elementary School have forwarded messages to me from a single case in each of those two schools since last Friday’s Status Report.

The Georgia Hospital Association (GHA) and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA) reported on Friday that the number of COVID-19 patients at area hospitals (26) increased by two from the day before, the number of ICU beds in use (56) increased by eight from the day before, and the number of adult ventilators in use (31) decreased by two from the day before.

The Department of Community Health, in its Friday Long-Term Care Facility Report, listed one additional case of COVID-19 among staff in the 44 facilities in the Northeast Health District covered by the Report.

That case was at Manor Lake Athens personal care home in Clarke County.

Vaccines

The Department of Public Health released data on Friday showing that 16.0 percent of the population of the Northeast Health District is now fully vaccinated.

The figure had been 15.6 on Thursday.

The District is not keeping up with the state, which has 18.3 percent of the population vaccinated. That figure had been 17.6 on Thursday

Oconee County has the highest percent of its population vaccinated in the 10-county District with 24.5 percent. Clarke County is at 17.8 percent.

Only 11.0 percent of the population in Barrow County is fully vaccinated, the lowest of the counties in the District.

These percentages are based on the population figures given by the Department of Public Health in the Daily Status Report.

The State Vaccine Distribution Dashboard reports higher percentages for the 10 counties in the Northeast Health District (it does not report the data for the District itself) by using lower estimates of the population sizes.

State Data

Across the state, the Department of Public Health added 1,783 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases increased to 1,615.4, up from 1,591.4 on Thursday.

The Daily Status Report added 51 confirmed COVID-19 deaths across the state on Friday, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths increased to 36.7 from 36.3 on Thursday.

Eighteen of the 51 added confirmed deaths occurred in the last 14 days, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths dated by day of occurrence increased on Friday from Thursday.

The Department of Public Health eliminated one death it had previously confirmed as caused by COVID-19 from its archive of deaths from the disease.

The Department of Public Health added six “probable” deaths from COVID-19 in Friday’s Daily Status Report, and the seven-day rolling average of added “probable” deaths was 6.3, the same as on Thursday.

The Georgia Hospital Association (GHA) and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA) reported on Friday that the number of COVID-19 patients (1,172) at the state’s hospitals decreased from the day before, the number of ICU beds in use (2,352) decreased from the day before, and the number of adult ventilators in use (983) decreased from the day before.

The Department of Public Health on Friday reported data indicating that 18.3 percent of the state’s population is fully vaccinated, though the Vaccine Distribution Dashboard lists the percent fully vaccinated at a rounded 19 percent.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists the percentage in Georgia that is fully vaccinated as 17.9. Georgia continues as the state with the smallest percentage of its population fully vaccinated.

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 Friday.

Click To Enlarge

No comments: