The Georgia Hospital Association and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency reported on Friday that area hospitals had 19 COVID-19 patients, the same number as on Friday of last week.
The number of ICU beds in use on Friday was 61, down from 71 a week earlier, and the number of adult ventilators in use was 28, up from 26 last Friday.
The Georgia Department of Public Health reported two new confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District in its report on Wednesday. It had reported two new confirmed deaths last week.
The Department of Public Health also reported one new “probable” death from COVID-19 in Wednesday’s report. That “probable” death from COVID was in Clarke County.
The Georgia Department of Public Health also reported that the Northeast Health District added 232 new cases of COVID-19 in the week ending on Nov. 23, based on the Department’s electronic tracking system.
That number of added cases on Nov. 16 as 171.
The Georgia Department of Public Health’s 10-county Northeast Health District includes Oconee and Clarke counties. The other counties are Barrow, Elbert, Greene, Jackson, Madison, Morgan, Oglethorpe, and Walton.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed the classification of the Transmission Rate for Oconee County last week from Moderate to High, while that rate in Clarke County remained Moderate.
The CDC continues to rate the Influenza Activity Level for Georgia as Very High, and it reports that the percent of Antigen tests for Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) that are positive was down slightly from a week earlier and the percent of PCR tests for RSV that were positive also was down slightly.
The CDC is not reporting county level data for Influenza or RSV.
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, ending on a Wednesday.
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The Department of Public Health switched to weekly, rather than daily, case counts in April in part because of a concern that its counts under-represent the actual number of cases.
At-home test results are not included in the electronic reporting system.
The average number of added cases per day in the last seven days ending on Nov. 23 in the Northeast Health District was 33.1, compared with 24.4,on Nov. 16.
Oconee County added 31 cases in the seven days ending on Wednesday. The county added 11 cases in the seven days ending on Nov. 16.
Clarke County added 39 new cases in the seven days ending on Nov. 23. It had added 40 cases in the week ending on Nov. 16.
The unstandardized rolling average of added cases in Oconee County on Nov. 23 was 4.3. It had been 1.6 on Nov. 16.
The unstandardized seven-day rolling average of added cases in Clarke County on Nov. 23 was 6.6. It had been 6.4 on Nov. 16.
Deaths
The two new confirmed deaths were in Barrow and Jackson counties.
The Northeast Health District now has recorded 1,690 confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District since February of 2020, or 318.8 deaths per 100,000 population.
The Northeast Health District reported 188 “probable” deaths from COVID-19 on Wednesday, up from 187 last Wednesday.
Clarke County, with the newly added “probable” COVID death, now has 17 such deaths recorded.
The Department of Public Health does not provide any details about “probable” deaths from COVID-19.
Focus On Hospital Reports
In its announcement in April, 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.”
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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 include 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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The Centers for Disease Control and prevention rates the Transmission Rate of COVID-19 in Oconee County as High and Clarke County as Moderate, based on total number of new cases per 100,000 population in the last seven days and the percentage of Nucleic Acid Amplification Tests that are positive during the last seven days, ending on Thursday.
Last week, Oconee County had been Moderate in terms of Community Transmission, and Clarke County had been rated as Moderate.
The CDC now lists 31 out of the state’s 159 counties as having a High Transmission Rate.
That number was 24 last week, but not all of the counties rated High are the same as a week ago.
The CDC scale is High (Red), Substantial (Orange), Moderate (Yellow), or Low (Blue).
Neither the CDC more the Georgia Department of Public Health releases county-level data on influenza rates.
The state-wide Influenza Activity Level for Georgia for the week ending on Nov. 12, the most recent rating, lists the level of activity in Georgia as 12, or Very High.
The highest level is 13. The rating last week was 12.
The CDC reports the three-week rolling average of the percent of antigen and PRC detections for RSV in the state.
For the week ending on Nov. 19, the rate was 3.0 (Antigen) and 4.2 (PCR).
For the week ending on Nov. 12, the rate was 3.3 (Antigen) and 4.8 (PCR)
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