Critical Care Beds Availability Improves; COVID-19 Cases Soar

The number of available Critical Care Beds in area hospitals increased to five with the release of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency Situation Report COVID-19 late on Wednesday.

The Tuesday Situation Report had listed only one Critical Care Bed available at the area’s 11 hospitals. On both Monday and last Friday, no Critical Care Beds has been reported to be available.

The Georgia Emergency Management Agency clarified on Wednesday that hospitals are asked to provide their data on bed availability by noon each day and that the information reported is not more than 24 hours old.

The Georgia Department of Public Health Reported 196 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the 10-county Northeast Health District on Wednesday, pushing the seven-day rolling average of added cases to 152.0, its highest level ever.

The Northeast Health District added one death attributed to COVID-19 in the Wednesday Daily Situation Report, of a 57-year-old male in Clarke County with a known chronic condition.

The death was the first reported in Clarke County resulting from the disease since June 4 and brings the county’s total to 16.

The seven-day rolling average of added deaths from COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District remained unchanged at 0.3.

The Department of Community Health Long-Term Care Facility Report for Wednesday listed one new COVID-19 positive staff member at a personal care home in Walton County and one new COVID-19 positive resident at Pruitthealth–Grandview and at University Nursing and Rehab Center, both in Athens-Clarke County.

For more on details on COVID-19 at the local and state level, please go to Oconee County Observations.