The Georgia Hospital Association and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency reported on Friday that area hospitals had 13 COVID-19 patients, up from the four reported on Friday of last week.
The number of ICU beds in use was 70, up from 58 a week earlier, and the number of adult ventilators in use was 33, up from 31 a week earlier.
In its fourth weekly COVID-19 report on May 11, the Department of Public Health showed that the number of cases tallied in its electronic tracking system increased in the 10-county Northeast Health District by 257 from the Status Report on May 4.
The District had added 110 cases in the week ending on May 4.
The Department of Public Heath Report on Wednesday added one new confirmed death from COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District in the last week.
The confirmed deaths was in Barrow 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.
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The Department of Public Health switched to weekly, rather than daily, case counts on April 20 in part because of a concern that its numbers under-represent the actual number of cases.
At home test results are not included in the electronic reporting system.
If the undercount is consistent week-to-week, however, the trends across time would track changes in the occurrence of COVID-19 in the 10-county Northeast Health District as well as in the state.
The average number of added cases per day in the last seven days ending on Wednesday in the Northeast Health District was 36.7, compared with 15.7 in the seven days ending on May 4.
Oconee County added 37 cases in the seven days ending on Wednesday. The county added 12 cases in the seven days ending on May 4.
Clarke County added 97 new cases in the seven days ending on May 11. It had added 61 new cases in the five days ending on May 4.
The unstandardized rolling average of added cases in Oconee County on Wednesday was 4.3. It had been 2.0 on May 4.
In Clarke County, the unstandardized seven-day rolling average of added cases on Wednesday was 14.9, compared with 8.0 on May 4.
The Barrow County death brings to 246 the number of confirmed deaths attributed to COVID-19 in the county since the outbreak of the pandemic in February of 2020. That is 294.6 deaths per 100,000 population.
The total number of confirmed deaths in the Northeast Health District is now 1,587, or 299.4 per 100,000 population.
The Department of Public Health did not add any “probable” deaths from COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District in the last week ending on Wednesday.
One “probable” death was added to Morgan County, however, and that was offset by the subtraction of one “probable” death from COVID-19 in Oconee County.
Oconee County now has 11 “probable” death from the disease, as well as 95 confirmed deaths attributed to COVID-19.
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.
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University Of Georgia Report
The University of Georgia on Wednesday, in its COVID-19 Health and Exposure Updates, reported 97 positive COVID-19 tests, up from 41 in the report for the previous week.
The report on Wednesday covered the period of May 2 to 8..
The University reported performing 193 walk-in tests on individuals at the University Health Center in the week ending on May 8. That number had been 143 a week earlier.
Sixteen of the 193 tests were positive, for a positivity rate of 8.3 percent. The positivity rate for the walk-in tests performed in the week ending on May 1 was 4.2 percent.
Dr. Shelley Nuss, Co-Chair of the Medical Oversight Task Force at the University of Georgia, sent out an email on May 9 indicating that the Health and Exposure Update will be discontinued after a final report on May 18.
Surveillance testing also will be discontinued.
Oconee County Schools Reports
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 three new cases had been added.
The cases involved a student at Dove Creek Elementary School, a student at Oconee County High School, and a student at Oconee County Middle School.
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 the three new cases.
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