The Georgia Hospital Association and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency reported on Friday that area hospitals had 28 COVID-19 patients, down from 30 on Friday of last week.
The number of ICU beds in use on Friday was 73, up from 69 a week earlier, and the number of adult ventilators in use was 28, down from 29 last Friday.
The Georgia Department of Public Health reported six new confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District in its report on Wednesday. It had reported three new confirmed deaths last week.
Two of the newly reported confirmed deaths from COVID-19 were in Clarke County.
The Georgia Department of Public Health also reported that the Northeast Health District added 420 new cases of COVID-19 in the week ending on Dec. 7, based on the Department’s electronic tracking system.
That number of added cases on Nov. 30 was 291.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classified the Transmission Rate for COVID-19 for Oconee County and for Clarke County as High this past week, as it had a week earlier.
All counties in the Northeast Health District except Morgan and Greene are now rated as High Transmission of COVID-19.
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 CDC rates the Influenza Activity Level for Georgia as 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, but the percent of PCR tests for RSV that were positive were up 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 Dec. 7 in the Northeast Health District was 60.0, up from 41.6 on Nov. 30.
Oconee County added 36 cases in the seven days ending on Wednesday. The county added 21 cases in the seven days ending on Nov. 30.
Clarke County added 73 new cases in the seven days ending on Dec. 7. It had added 56 cases in the week ending on Nov. 30.
The unstandardized rolling average of added cases in Oconee County on Dec. 7 was 5.1, It had been 3.0 on Nov. 30.
The unstandardized seven-day rolling average of added cases in Clarke County on Dec. 7 was 11.1. It had been 8.7 on Nov. 30.
Deaths
The two new reported confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in Clarke County in the week ending on Dec. 7 were of a 70-year-old female without a chronic condition and of an 80-year-old female, also without a chronic condition.
Barrow, Greene, Jackson and Walton counties each also reported a confirmed death from COVID-19 in the Dec. 7 Department of Public Health Daily Status Report.
A confirmed death from COVID-19 previously reported in Elbert County was reassigned or removed from the file, so the Northeast Health District as a whole added five new confirmed deaths from the disease.
The Northeast Health District now has recorded 1,698 confirmed deaths from COVID-19 since February of 2020, or 320.3 deaths per 100,000 population.
Clarke County, even with the two new confirmed deaths, has the lowest number of deaths in the Northeast Health District per 100,000 population, at 183.4. Oconee is second lowest with 241.6 confirmed deaths per 100,000 population.
The total number of confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in Clarke County now stands at 236. That number in Oconee County is 101.
The Northeast Health District reported 188 “probable” deaths from COVID-19 on Wednesday, up from 187 last Wednesday.
The added new “probable” death from COVID-19 was in Barrow County.
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 and in Clarke County as High, 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 and Clarke County had been rated as High.
The CDC now lists 86 out of the state’s 159 counties as having a High Transmission Rate.
That number was 61 last week.
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 Dec. 3, the most recent rating, lists the level of activity in Georgia as 10, or High.
The highest level is 13. The rating last week was 11.
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 Dec. 3, the rate was 1.3 (Antigen), and 5.4 (PCR).
For the week ending on Nov. 26, the rate was 1.9 (Antigen) and 5.2 (PCR).
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