The Georgia Hospital Association and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency reported on Friday that area hospitals had four COVID-19 patients, up just one from the three reported on Friday of last week.
The number of ICU beds in use was 58, also up by one from a week earlier, and the number of adult ventilators in use was 31, the same as a week earlier.
The Georgia Department of Public Health announced on April 14 that it would no longer issue a Daily Status Report on COVID-19, in part because of a lack of confidence in its case count due to in-home testing. Instead, it began issuing weekly status reports, starting on April 20.
In its third weekly report, on May 4, the Department of Public Health reported that the number of cases tallied in its electronic tracking system increased in the 10-county Northeast Health District by 110 from the Status Report on April 27.
The District had added 158 cases in the week ending on April 27.
The Department of Public Heath Report on Wednesday added two new confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District since April 27. It had not added any confirmed deaths from COVID in the week ending on April 27.
One of the added confirmed deaths was in Clarke County.
The Northeast Health District includes Oconee and Clarke counties.
Weekly Report
Although the Department of Public Health is releasing a report only weekly, it is gathering data on a daily basis, and the weekly report includes a data file containing case counts each day.
 |
| Click To Enlarge |
The average number of added cases per day in the last seven days ending on Wednesday in the Northeast Health District was 15.7, compared with 22.6 in the five days ending on April 27.
Oconee County added 12 cases in the seven days ending on Wednesday. The county also added 12 cases in the seven days ending on April 27.
Clarke County added 61 new cases in the seven days ending on May 4. It had added 39 new cases in the seven days ending on April 27.
The unstandardized rolling average of added cases in Oconee County on Wednesday was 1.7. It had been 1.6 on April 27.
In Clarke County, the unstandardized seven-day rolling average of added cases on Wednesday was 8.1, compared with 5.9 on April 27.
The added confirmed death from COVID-19 in Clarke County was of a 74-year-old male without a chronic condition.
The death brings to 220 the number of confirmed deaths attributed to COVID-19 in Clarke County since the outbreak of the pandemic in February of 2020. That is is 171.0 deaths per 100,000 population, or the lowest rate in the 10-county Northeast Health District.
The other confirmed death in the District in the last week was in Morgan County, which now has 58 deaths from the disease, or 288.6 per 100,000 population.
The Department of Public Health removed–or moved to another county--earlier reported confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in Barrow and Jackson counties, so the total number of confirmed deaths in the Northeast Health District remained unchanged at 1,586, or 299.2 per 100,000 population.
The Department of Public Health added three “probable” deaths from COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District in the last week ending on Wednesday. These were in Elbert, Madison, and Oglethorpe counties.
Focus On Hospital Reports
In its announcement on April 14, the Georgia Department of Public Health said “Given the number of at-home COVID tests that do not get reported, there is now a greater focus on other indicators.”
The announcement directed attention to the data released by the Georgia Hospital Association and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency.
The hospital data available for the area includes the 10 counties in the Northeast Health District plus Hart and Franklin counties. The data are dominated by St. Mary’s and Piedmont Regional in Athens-Clarke County.
 |
| Click To Enlarge |
University, Oconee County Schools Reports
The University of Georgia on Wednesday, in its COVID-19 Health and Exposure Updates, reported 41 positive COVID-19 tests, up from 40 in the report for the previous week.
The report on Wednesday covered the period of April 25 to May 1.
The University reported performing 143 walk-in tests on individuals at the University Health Center in the week ending on May 1. That number had been 114 a week earlier.
Six of the 143 tests were positive, for a positivity rate of 4.2 percent. The positivity rate for the walk-in tests performed in the week ending on April 24 was 4.4 percent.
A group of parents continues to file an open records request each week for reported cases of COVID-19 at Oconee County Schools, and the system responded on Friday that one new cases had been added.
A staff member in the central office reported a positive test result dated May 1.
The parents are reporting the data released to them as a result of the open records requests on the Safety First Facebook page, but they also have released the data to me for my own analysis.
Oconee County Schools releases to the public only the number of Active Cases in the schools at the end of the class week. The data from the previous week are removed when the new data are reported.
The report on Friday listed no new cases.
According to the data released to the parents, the staff member returned to work on May 5 (Thursday) and thus was not considered Active by Oconee County Schools for Friday’s report.
No comments:
Post a Comment