The Georgia Department of Public Health reported that the Northeast Health District added 165 new cases of COVID-19 in the week ending on March 1, based on the Department’s electronic tracking system.
That number of added cases a week earlier on Feb. 22 had been 470.
Both Oconee County and Clarke County reported decreases in cases.
The Department of Public Health reported four new confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District in its report on Wednesday, including one in Oconee County and one in Clarke County.
The Department of Public Health had reported three confirmed deaths from the disease in the Northeast Health District on Wednesday of last week.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to rate the Transmission Rate for COVID-19 in Oconee and Clarke counties as High, though the rate of Transmission has decreased in five of the other counties in the Northeast Health District.
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.
 |
| Click To Enlarge |
The Department of Public Health switched to weekly, rather than daily, case counts in April of last year 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 March 1 in the Northeast Health District was 23.6, down from 67.1 last week.
Oconee County added 11 cases in the seven days ending on Wednesday. The county added 23 cases in the seven days ending on Feb. 22.
Clarke County added 55 new cases in the seven days ending on March 1. It had added 74 cases in the week ending on Feb. 22.
The unstandardized rolling average of added cases in Oconee County on March 1 was 1.3. It had been 3.4 on Feb. 22.
The unstandardized seven-day rolling average of added cases in Clarke County on March 1 was 8.3. It had been 11.0 on Feb. 22.
Deaths
The Oconee County confirmed death from COVID-19 reported in the last week was of a 76-year-old male without a chronic condition.
Oconee County now has recorded 104 confirmed deaths from COVID-19 since the outbreak of the pandemic in February of 2020.
Oconee County also reported a confirmed death from COVID-19 last week.
The Clarke County confirmed death from COVID-19 was of a 32-year-old female without a chronic condition. This was the fifth youngest person with a confirmed COVID-19 death in the county, which now has 246 confirmed deaths from COVID-19.
The two other reported confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District, according to the Daily Status Report on March 1, were in Elbert County and Walton County.
The Northeast Health District now has recorded 1,746 confirmed deaths from COVID-19 since February of 2020, or 329.3 deaths per 100,000 population.
Clarke County has the lowest rate of deaths per 100,000 population in the Northeast Health District (191.2), followed by Oconee County (248.8).
The Northeast Health District reported 195 “probable” deaths from COVID-19 on Wednesday, the same as last week.
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.
Additional Data
The Georgia Department of Public Health is no longer reporting data on COVID-19 hospitalizations at area hospitals, and the data available from the U.S. Health and Human Services are two weeks old when released.
The Centers for Disease Control and prevention rates the Transmission Rate of COVID-19 in Oconee County and 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.
Both counties had been rated at High in terms of Rate of Transmission last week as well.
Oconee and Clarke are joined by Jackson, Greene and Morgan counties in the Northeast Health District with High Transmission rates.
Madison, Elbert, and Oglethorpe counties have a Substantial Transmission rate, and Walton and Barrow counties have a Moderate Transmission rate.
The CDC scale is High, Substantial, Moderate, or Low.
1 comment:
Once again, a definition of a "case" is missing.
A positive test, the vast majority of which are now done at home and
are never reported to any public health organization, is not really a case.
The lines of healthy-appearing people waiting to be tested were ludicrous.
What's the purpose of a test?
An old saying in medicine is "Inappropriate tests yield inappropriate results."
The highest-paid Federal employee has done irreparable damage to public health and belief in medical science.
We've been had.
BTW, I've done viral research for the US Army (USAMRIID).
Bill Mayberry
Post a Comment