NE Health District Adds COVID Cases, Deaths; Hospital Cases Up

The Northeast Health District added 119 confirmed COVID-19 cases with the Saturday release of the Daily Status Report of the Department of Public Health and three deaths attributed to the disease.

Most of the cases–105–were the result of molecular tests, with the remaining 14 the result of antigen tests.

Every county in the 10-county Northeast Health District except Oglethorpe added at least one case based on the molecular tests, with Oconee County adding four and Clarke county adding 33.

The seven-day rolling average of added cases based on the molecular tests dropped to 90.4 on Saturday from 94.1 on Friday, and the seven-day rolling average in Oconee County increased slightly while it decreased slightly in Clarke County.

Clarke County added 15 antigen positive tests on Saturday, while Oconee added none. The Department of Public Health began reporting antigen test results only on Tuesday.

The deaths were of a 78-year-old female in Barrow County without a chronic condition, a 76-year-old male in Elbert County without a chronic condition, and an 81-year-old female in Jackson County with a chronic condition.

The seven-day rolling average of added deaths in the Northeast Health District increased to 1.7 on Saturday from 1.4 on Friday.

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 (77) increased by four from the day before, that the number of ICU beds in use (58) decreased by two from the day before, and that the number of adult ventilators in use (34) increased by eight from the day before.

Saturday was the seventh day in a row that the number of COVID-19 patients had increased at area hospitals. The hospitals have not had as many as 77 COVID-19 patients since Sept. 11, when they had 91.

For more on this story, please click through to Oconee County Observations.