Northeast Health District Adds 141 New COVID-19 Cases In Last Week, Four Confirmed Deaths From Disease

***Oconee County adds 66th Confirmed COVID-19 Death***

The Northeast Health District added 141 new cases of COVID-19 in the week ending on Friday and four new confirmed deaths attributed to the disease.

The 141 added cases of COVID-19 compare with the 199 added cases and the six confirmed deaths added in the week ending May 21.

The average of 20.1 new cases per day for the week ending on Friday compares with the average of 28.4 new cases per day for the week ending on May 21.

Oconee County added four cases in the week ending on Friday, while Clarke County added 28.

In the week ending on May 21, Oconee County added five cases and Clarke County added 36.

One of the confirmed deaths in the last week in the 10-county Northeast Health District was in Oconee County, while the others were in Barrow, Morgan, and Oglethorpe counties.

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

The death occurred on Jan. 15 and was reported on Feb. 14. It most likely was attributed at that time to another county but reassigned to Oconee County during the past week.

The deaths bring to 66 the number of confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in Oconee County since the outbreak of the pandemic in February of 2020 and to 926 the number in the 10-county Northeast Health District since that time.

The total number of deaths in the District is lower than a week earlier because the Department of Public Health removed deaths in Greene, Jackson, Madison, and Walton counties from its list of confirmed deaths. Any one of those deaths could have been moved to Oconee County or another county.

The Northeast Health District had 94 “probable” deaths from COVID-19 on Friday, compared with 93 a week earlier. The added “probable” death was in Elbert County.

These data are from the Friday Daily Status Report of the Department of Public Health.

University, Long-Term Care Report

The University of Georgia on Wednesday, in its COVID-19 Health and Exposure Update, reported no positive COVID-19 tests, down from three a week earlier.

This was the first time going back to Aug. 10 of last year that the university did not report a positive test.

The University also reported that 106 individuals were tested at the walk-in Legion Field site, down from 166 a week earlier, and none of the tests came back positive.

This was the second week in a row that none of the tests at Legion Field came back positive.

The Department of Community Health did not issue its Long-Term Care Facility Report on Friday and the link to its report for Thursday is broken.

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 25, the number of ICU beds in use was 60, and the number of adult ventilators in use was 38.

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On Friday a week earlier, the number of COVID-19 patients was 26, the number of ICU beds in use was 61, and the number of adult ventilators in use was 43.

According to the raw data behind the Department of Public Health Vaccine Distribution Dashboard for Friday, 30.4 percent of the residents of the Northeast Health District had at least one dose of a vaccine on Friday and 26.1 percent were fully vaccinated.

Last week, those figures were 29.9 with at least one dose and 25.4 fully vaccinated.

In the 10-county Northeast Health District, Oconee County has the highest rate of residents with at least one dose (42.3 percent) and the highest percentage fully vaccinated (36.9 percent).

Clarke County has 34.3 percent of its residents with at least one dose and 29.7 percent fully vaccinated.

A week ago, Oconee County also was at the top of the District, with 41.7 percent of its residents with at least one dose and 36.4 percent fully vaccinated.

A week ago, 33.7 percent of Clarke County’s residents had at least one dose of the vaccines and 29.0 percent were 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.