Oconee County School Superintendent Jason Branch told the Board of Education at its meeting on Monday that he and his staff are reviewing the guidelines from the Georgia Department of Public Education and the Georgia Department of Public Health to determine how schools will reopen in the fall.
The two state departments had released earlier in the day guidelines for school systems regarding the reopening of schools following their closure this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Northeast Health District added seven deaths attributed to COVID-19 in the Daily Status Report of the Department of Public Health on Tuesday, with Oconee County and Clarke County each accounting for one of the deaths.
The addition of seven deaths was the largest ever recorded for the 10-county Northeast Health District in a single day, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases increased to 2.3 on Tuesday from 1.4 on Monday.
Oconee and Oglethorpe counties each added a death attributed to COVID-19 in the Monday Daily Status Report issued by the Georgia Department of Health, bringing the total number of reported deaths from the disease in each of the counties to seven.
Oconee County’s death was of a female, described as 90 plus years of age and with chronic conditions, while the Oglethorpe death was of a 70-year-old male without known chronic conditions.
With 10 days of early voting completed for the June 9 primary and judicial elections, just more than 20 percent of Oconee County’s 30,457 registered voters have cast a ballot, either in person or by returning an Absentee ballot.
Republican ballots continue to dominate.
Of the 980 In-Person ballots cast by the end of the day on Saturday, 88.8 percent were in the Republican Primary, and of the 5,188 Absentee ballots returned as of the end of the day on Saturday, 66.2 percent were for the Republican Primary.
Clarke and Elbert counties where the only counties in the 10-county Northeast Health District to add a confirmed COVID-19 case in the Daily Status Report on Sunday as the area experienced a lull in the growth of cases.
Even with the addition of just the two cases, the seven-day rolling average of added cases dropped only from 38.4 on Saturday to 36.6 on Sunday because Sundays traditionally have been days on which few cases are added in the District.
Extra Special People, in a virtual meeting on Friday, released to the public greatly revised plans for its proposed development of a part of Harris Shoals Park in collaboration with the city of Watkinsville.
Retained in those plans is a Miracle League Field, which is a ball field that can be used by people in wheelchairs, but gone are the originally proposed splash pad, additional park entrance off Experiment Station Road, and increased parking.
Oconee County recorded its six death attributed to COVID-19 in the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report released at 1 p.m. on Saturday, and the county and the Northeast Health District continued to add cases in an unmistakable upturn in the disease in the area.
The 10-county Northeast Health District added 35 cases on Saturday, including seven in Clarke County, and the seven-day rolling average of cases increased to 38.4, the highest number ever recorded for the District.
