Friday, May 27, 2022

Hospital Association Reports Stability of COVID Indicators For Area Hospitals; Department Of Public Health Reports Local Case Increase

***Clarke Reports Confirmed COVID Death Of 27-Year-Old***

The Georgia Hospital Association and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency reported on Friday that area hospitals had 10 COVID-19 patients, up just one from the nine reported on Friday of last week.

The number of ICU beds in use was 60, the same as a week earlier, and the number of adult ventilators in use was 19, down from 20 a week earlier.

In its weekly COVID-19 report on May 25, 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 436 from the Status Report on May 18.

The District had added 276 cases in the week ending on May 18.

The Department of Public Heath Report on Wednesday added two new confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District in the last week.

One of the confirmed deaths was in Clarke County County, and the other 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.

Click To Enlarge

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 62.3, compared with 39.4 in the seven days ending on May 18.

Oconee County added 42 cases in the seven days ending on Wednesday. The county added 26 cases in the seven days ending on May 18.

Clarke County added 138 new cases in the seven days ending on May 25. It had added 84 new cases in the week ending on May 18.

The unstandardized rolling average of added cases in Oconee County on Wednesday was 6.1. It had been 3.3 on May 18.

In Clarke County, the unstandardized seven-day rolling average of added cases on Wednesday was 19.9, compared with 11.9 on May 18.

The Clarke County death was of a 27-year-old male without a known chronic condition.

This is the second youngest death from COVID-19 in Clarke County and brings to 222 the number of confirmed deaths attributed to COVID-19 in the county since the outbreak of the pandemic in February of 2020.

The Clarke County death total of 222 is 172.5 per 100,000 population, the lowest rate in the 10-county Northeast Health District.

The total number of confirmed deaths in the Northeast Health District is now 1,592, or 300.3 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.

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.”

Click To Enlarge
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.

The University of Georgia has discontinued issuance of its weekly COVID-19 Health and Exposure Updates.

Oconee County Schools is not in session and does not issue its weekly COVID-19 update during the summer.


1 comment:

Trey Downs said...

Lee:

When you report that a 27 year old "died" of COVID that sounds scary. In reality, the 27 year old likely had multiple co-morbidities. One thing we no for a fact, is that a lot of the reported COVID deaths were a misrepresentation. The truth about COVID is it was nothing more than a common cold to most people that were not suffering multiple co-morbities and elderly patients.

They had schools closed and children masked for far too long. The lasting effects of that will be horrific on these children. The shuttered businesses, required mandatory vaccinations, and even stricter nonsensical draconian measures in the communist lead communities out on the west cost and in the northeast.

When I see someone driving down the road in a car all alone wearing a mask, it breaks my heart. To think someone is so scared (government induced hysteria) they are afraid to breathe their on oxygen is truly a sight to behold.

What we should really concern ourselves with is the southern boarder and the crisis of overdose deaths in this country. Heroin and fentanyl is ravaging our country and has killed more people than COVID. But, we are far more concerned about the eastern border of Ukraine.

We have no alliance with Ukraine. They are not an ally and we should not involve ourselves in a boarder dispute in eastern Europe. Our economy is crashing, mothers can't find baby formula, diesel fuel supply is low, looming food shortages, but we send 40 billion, which we DO NOT have to Ukraine.

I shake my head while they fiddle and watch this country burn.

Trey Downs