Clarke County Adds Record 277 COVID Cases, Two COVID Deaths

Clarke County reported 277 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and two deaths from the disease on Saturday with the release of the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report.

The 277 new COVID-19 cases top the previous record of 173 recorded by the county on Thursday. Clarke County has recorded 1,346 new COVID-19 cases since the University of Georgia began the Fall semester on Aug. 20, or just more than a third of the 3,687 cases recorded in the county.

Each of the 10-counties in the Northeast Health District, of which Clarke and Oconee counties are part, had three or more new cases recorded with the Saturday Daily Status Report. Oconee County added 16, and the whole District added 385.

The 385 added cases set a new record for the District, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases jumped to a new record of 226.4 on Saturday, up from 192.3 on Friday, which also had been a record. In fact, the District has set a new record average each of the last four days.

The two deaths in Clarke County attributed to COVID-19 marked the fifth day in a row the District has added a death, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths increased to 3.0 from 2.9 on Friday. The 3.0 average ties the previous record set on Aug. 25.

The two Clarke County deaths were of a 70-year-old female without a chronic condition and of a 70-year-old male without a known chronic condition.

The Department of Public Health on Saturday reported 76 molecular tests in Oconee County, and the percentage of tests that were positive was 17.2. The seven-day rolling average of positive tests increased to 9.5 on Saturday from 7.6 on Friday, and the average has increased each of the last four days.

In Clarke County, the Daily Status Report listed 804 new molecular tests on Saturday, and the percentage of positive tests was 30.1. The seven-day rolling average of positive tests increased to 17.7 on Saturday from 14.9 on Friday, and the average has increased each of the last seven days.

The Georgia Hospital Association and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency on Saturday reported that area hospitals had 83 COVID-19 patients, down from 87 on Friday, 55 ICU Beds In Use, down from 57 on Friday, and 30 ventilators in use, down from 32 on Friday.

For more on this story, with charts summarizing local and state data, please go to Oconee County Observations.