Rolling Average Added Cases Of COVID-19 Continues To Increase In Northeast Health District; Three Deaths From Disease Reported

***Area Hospitals Report Only 24 COVID-19 Patients***

For the fourth day in a row, the seven-day rolling average of added COVID-19 cases increased in the Northeast Health District on Thursday as the state Department of Public Health recorded 57 new cases of the disease in the District.

The Department of Public Health added three confirmed deaths from COVID-19, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths remained unchanged at 1.4 deaths per day.

Two of the deaths–of a 73-year-old male with a chronic condition and of a 74-year-old male with a chronic condition–were in Jackson County. That county now has 137 deaths from the coronavirus.

GDOT Chief Engineer Overrules District Engineer, Approves Access To Oconee Connector For Major Shopping Center

***Boswell Copied On Correspondence***

Georgia Department of Transportation Chief Engineer Meg Pirkle has overruled the District 1 project team in favor of a full access median commercial break for a major shopping center on the Oconee Connector between SR 316 and Mars Hill Road.

In a letter dated April 6 and posted by Oconee County planning staff on the county website on Wednesday, Pirkle told land owner Maxie Price she was honoring Price’s request for maintenance of the existing median break on the Connector and for an access cut to his property.

As such, she was overturning a decision by Jason Dykes, District 1 traffic engineer, who in an email message to Oconee County on Jan. 12 said the existing median opening would be closed as part of a more than $70 million reconstruction of the SR 316 interchange with the Oconee Connector.