Friday, March 17, 2023

Georgia Department Of Public Heath Reported 105 New COVID Cases In Northeast Health District, Down Sharply From Last Two Weeks

***Three New Confirmed Deaths From Disease Reported***

The Georgia Department of Public Health reported that the Northeast Health District added 105 new cases of COVID-19 in the week ending on March 15, based on the Department’s electronic tracking system.

That number of added cases each of the previous two weeks had been 165.

Oconee County reported nine fewer cases than it reported a week earlier, while Clarke County reported two more cases than a week earlier.

The Department of Public Health reported three new confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District in its report on Wednesday. One of those was in Clarke County.

The Department of Public Health had reported no new confirmed deaths from the disease in the Northeast Health District on Wednesday of last week.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rated the Transmission Rate for COVID-19 in Oconee as Moderate and in Clarke County as Substantial. Both counties had been rated as High in Transmission last week.

The Transmission Rate in Greene County was rated High, but the Transmission Rate in each of the other nine counties in the Northeast Health District is now rated as Substantial, Moderate, or Low.

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 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 15 in the Northeast Health District was 15.0, down from 23.6 last week.

Oconee County added only four cases in the seven days ending on Wednesday. The county added 13 cases in the seven days ending on March 8.

Clarke County added 40 new cases in the seven days ending on March 15. It had added 38 cases in the week ending on March 8.

The unstandardized rolling average of added cases in Oconee County on March 15 was 0.3. It had been 2.0 on March 8.

The unstandardized seven-day rolling average of added cases in Clarke County on March 15 was 5.7. It had been 5.1 on March 8.

Deaths

The Northeast Health District now has recorded 1,749 confirmed deaths from COVID-19 since February of 2020, or 329.9 deaths per 100,000 population.

Clarke County, with 247 deaths, has the lowest rate of deaths per 100,000 population in the Northeast Health District (192.0), followed by Oconee County (248.8). Oconee County has recorded 104 confirmed deaths from COVID-19.

The added death in Clarke County was of a 90-plus-year-old woman without a chronic condition.

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 reports the Transmission Rate of COVID-19 in Oconee County as Moderate and Clarke County as Substantial, 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.

Only Greene County has a High Transmission Rate.

Morgan and Barrow counties have a Substantial Transmission Rate, Walton, Oglethorpe, and Elbert counties have a Moderate Transmission Rate, and Madison County has a Low Transmission Rate.

The CDC scale is High, Substantial, Moderate, or Low.

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