Oconee County Now Has 5 Confirmed COVID-19 Cases, Clarke Has 16; Medical Professionals Urge County To Issue Shelter-In-Place Order

***Commission Chair Said Considering Citizen Input***

UPDATE: Oconee County added two new cases of confirmed COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, as did Clarke County. The number of cases in Oconee is now 5, and it is 16 in Clarke. Barrow County still only the one confirmed case. Walton, Morgan and Greene counties now also are reporting a single case, as is Madison County. The number of cases in the state has increased 32.9 percent in the last 24 hours and now stands at 1,026. The chart below summarizes those data. I will update it again after the 7 p.m. Daily Status Report today.

Click To Enlarge

Confirmed COVID-19 Cases Stable In Oconee County, Barrow County, Clarke County; New Testing Options Announced

***Area Government Leaders Expect Increases In Future***

Update 12:14 p.m. 3/23/20 Oconee now has its third confirmed case of COVID-19. The number of confirmed cases in Clarke is now 14. Barrow still has a single confirmed case. The number of confirmed cases in the state now is 772.

Click To Enlarge

The original post follows.

While the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 has increased dramatically in the state in the last two days, the number of confirmed cases in Oconee, Clarke and Barrow counties has remained stable, according to data released by the Georgia Department of Public Health.

Oconee and Barrow counties are each reporting a single case, and the Department of Public Health has decreased the count of the number of cases in Clarke County from 10 to nine.

Confirmed COVID-19 Cases In Clarke County Now At 10; Piedmont Oconee County Campus Offers Testing

***Potential Exposure At Oconee County Landfill***

UPDATE 3/21/2020 noon: Numbers for Oconee, Clarke and Barrow counties remain unchanged from a day earlier.

UPDATE: Oconee county has its first confirmed case of COVID-19, based on the Georgia Department of Health Daily Status Report for 7 p.m. on 3/20/2020. Clarke now has 10 cases. Barrow has one case.

This original post was based on data from Thursday and has been updated based on the Georgia Department of Health Daily Status Report for 7 p.m. of 3/20/20.

The Georgia Department of Health reported Thursday that Clarke County has eight confirmed cases of COVID-19, up from five on Wednesday. Barrow County has a single case, first reported on Tuesday. (Clarke now has 10 cases, as of 7 p.m. on 3/20/20)

According to the Department of Health report for Thursday, Oconee County still has no confirmed cases, but the Oconee County web site reports a potential exposure of an employee at the County landfill off U.S. 441 in the far south of the county. (Oconee now has one case as of 7 p.m. on 3/20/20.)

Last Week’s Retreat And Called Meeting Of Watkinsville Mayor And Council Show Differences In Perspectives

***No Support On Council For Mayor’s New City Charter***

After an eight-hour retreat of the Watkinsville Mayor and Council on Monday of last week, Brian Brodrick, mayor pro tem and the longest serving member of the Council, praised his colleagues, including new Mayor Bob Smith, for their team play.

Brodrick made the comment even though Smith had surprised the Council at the retreat with a proposed revision of the City Charter that would that would reverse the action by the Council at the end last year–just before Smith took office–delegating to the city manager some of the duties of the mayor.

Democratic Ballots Dominated Early Presidential Primary Voting In Oconee County Before Election Postponed

***Republican Ballots Greatly Down From 2016***

Just less than 5 percent of Oconee County’s registered voters had cast a ballot before voting for the March 24 Presidential Primary was suspended by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger at the end of early voting today.

The Presidential Primary now will coincide with the already scheduled May 19 party primaries and nonpartisan judicial elections.

Oconee County Gun Coalition Meeting Inserts Gun Rights Into County Elections

***Commission And Sheriff Race Targeted***

Oconee County’s approach to guns became solidly embedded last Saturday in the upcoming elections for the Board of Commissioners and for Sheriff.

Carol Bennett and Johnny Pritchett, both seeking the Republican nomination for Chair of the Oconee County Board of Commissioners, attended the meeting of the Oconee County Gun Coalition at the Oconee County Library and endorsed that group’s desire to declare the county a Second Amendment Sanctuary.

Oconee County Board Of Education Tables Action On Joint Use Agreement With County For Sports Facilities

***Charging Of Fees Put On Hold***

The Oconee County Board of Education Monday evening tabled a proposal from school administrators that Oconee County Schools begin charging the county Parks and Recreation Department for use of school athletic fields.

Dallas LeDuff, director of student services for Oconee County Schools, presented the School Board with a revision of his proposal from a week earlier that phased in the usage fees across the three years of a new joint use agreement with the county.