Health & Fitness
NE Health District Adds 131 COVID Cases; Sales Tax Revenues Down
The Georgia Department of Public Health listed 131 new COVID-19 cases in the 10-county Northeast Health District on Saturday.
The Northeast Health District of the Department of Public Health added one COVID-19 death with the release of the Daily Status Report on Saturday and 131 new confirmed cases of the disease.
The seven-day rolling average of added deaths dropped slightly, but the seven-day rolling average of added cases increased.
The death was of a 79-year-old male in Walton County without a known chronic condition.
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The seven-day rolling average of added deaths in the Northeast Health District dropped from 1.9 on Friday to 1.6 on Saturday. The District now has 309 deaths listed in the Daily Status Report.
With the addition of the 131 cases, the seven-day rolling average of added cases in the District increased from 79.0 on Friday to 82.3 on Saturday.
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Oconee County added two new cases of COVID-19 with the release of the Daily Status Report on Saturday, and every other county in the District added at least three cases. Clarke County added 39 cases, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases increased in Clarke, and it decreased slightly in Oconee.
Area hospitals so far have reported little negative impact of the increase in cases of the disease.
The Georgia Hospital Association (GHA) and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA) reported on Saturday that the number of COVID-19 patients at area hospitals (51) decreased by seven from the day before, that the number of ICU beds in use (43) decreased by 21 from the day before, and that the number of adult ventilators in use (30) was an increase of one from the day before.
The Georgia Department of Revenue released sales tax distributions on Friday showing the continuing economic impact of the pandemic on local governments.
In Oconee County, revenue from the Local Option Sales Tax, Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, and Education Local Option Sales Tax, all one percent, was just at 5 percent less for September than it was in September of 2019.
In Clarke County, the drop was even more dramatic, at about 13 percent.
For more local reporting, for state data, and for charts summarizing local and state data, please go to Oconee County Observations.