Georgia’s Northeast Health District, which includes Oconee and Clarke counties, added 11 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 with the noon Daily Status Report of the Department of Public Health on Sunday.
Those 11 cases are up from seven added in the noon Daily Status Report on Saturday but down dramatically from the 27 added on Friday and the 46 added on April 7. Included are two new cases in Oconee County and one in Clarke County.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners agreed on Tuesday, in a brief meeting closed to the public except through live-streaming because of the COVID-19 pandemic, to two contracts totaling $3.1 million for a new elevated water storage tank and pressure valves to improve water pressure in the Watkinsville area.
The Board approved a bid of $2,475,000 with Caldwell Tank Inc., of Louisville, Ky., for construction of the 750,000-gallon elevated water tank at the intersection of the US. 441 Bypass and Macon Highway (South Main Street).
The sole death in Oconee County attributed to COVID-19 by the Georgia Department of Public Health has been eliminated as of the noon Daily Status Report on Saturday.
The number of deaths in Clarke County increased by one in that same noon Saturday report, with an 85-year-old male without known underlying conditions added to the Clarke County total, now of 11 cases.
The Northeast Health District, which includes Oconee and Clarke counties, added 27 new COVID-19 cases in the 24-hour-period ending at noon on Friday, the largest number of added cases since the 46 added on Tuesday.
Oconee County added two new cases, and Oglethorpe County added nine new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the 24-hour-period.
The Georgia Department of Public Health in its noon Daily Status Report for Thursday listed nine deaths for Clarke County despite the announcement by an Athens nursing home operator Wednesday that 10 of its residents who had “previously tested presumptive positive for COVID-19" had passed away “in the past few weeks.”
The Daily Status Report listed Clarke County as having its first COVID-19 death on March 24 (or a little more than two weeks ago), seven deaths attributable to COVID-19 on April 2, eight on April 3, and nine first on April 7.
Sara Tindall Ghazal, former voter protection director for the Georgia Democratic Party, and Rev. James Woodall, president of the Georgia NAACP, participating in a virtual Town Hall meeting last week, urged Georgia voters to apply for an absentee ballot for the May 19 election.
Voters should fill out the application sent to all active, registered voters in the state by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the two said, as a safe way to vote as the COVID-19 pandemic plays out in the state.
UPDATE: Raffensperger on Thursday morning moved the primary back to June 9.
The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the 10-county Northeast Health District of Georgia grew by 16 in the 24-hour period ending at noon on Wednesday, down from the increase of 46 cases in the 24-hour period ending at noon on Tuesday.
The number of deaths in the Northeast Health District increased by only one during that time period, reflecting the first death attributable to the disease in Oconee County, picked up in the 7 p.m. Daily Status Report from Tuesday.
