NE Health District Adds Record Number Of COVID Cases, Six Deaths

The Northeast Health District added a record number of COVID-19 cases on Thursday–614–on a date the state broke 10,000 cases for the first time, with that volume causing a delay in the issuance of the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report.

The Northeast Health District also added six deaths attributed to the disease, a number exceeded only three times–on Sept. 1, when 10 deaths were recorded, and on June 2 and on Sept. 18, when seven were recorded.

Two of those deaths were in Clarke County, one was in Barrow County, and three were in Jackson County.

The Georgia Hospital Association (GHA) and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA) reported on Thursday that the number of COVID-19 patients at area hospitals (194) increased by eight from the day before. The number of patients with COVID-19 is at a level never reported before.

The number of ICU beds in use (64) decreased by three from the day before, but the number of adult ventilators in use (45) increased by three from the day before.

The seven-day rolling average of added deaths in the 10-county Northeast Health District on Thursday was 2.4, up from 1.9 on Wednesday.

With the addition of the 614 new cases on Thursday, the seven-day-rolling average of added cases increased to 422.6, the largest number since the state began reporting both molecular and antigen test results on Nov. 3.

Oconee County added a record 71 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, and Clarke added 73.

For more details on the local situation and for state data for comparison, please go to Oconee County Observation.