Oconee Adds COVID-19 Death; Cases In Region Continue To Climb

Oconee County recorded its six death attributed to COVID-19 in the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report released at 1 p.m. on Saturday, and the county and the Northeast Health District continued to add cases in an unmistakable upturn in the disease in the area.

The 10-county Northeast Health District added 35 cases on Saturday, including seven in Clarke County, and the seven-day rolling average of cases increased to 38.4, the highest number ever recorded for the District.

The District has added 269 cases in the last seven days alone, or 18.3 percent of the total 1,467 cases logged since the outbreak of the disease in March.

The two deaths, of a 68-year-old male in Oconee County without chronic conditions and of an 82-year-old male in Barrow County with a chronic condition–brings to 64 the total number of deaths attributed to COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District.

The seven-day rolling average of deaths for the District is 1.1 persons per day, down from 1.6 on Friday. The District had added eight deaths in the last week and 19 deaths in the last 14 days.

The number of deaths in the Daily Status Report is clearly an undercount.

The Department of Community Health in its Long-Term Care Facility Report on Friday listed eight deaths among residents at the High Shoals Health and Rehabilitation nursing home in North High Shoals in the west of Oconee County, while the Department of Public Health lists only the six deaths in the county.

The Department of Community Health lists 15 deaths at Barrow County long-term care facilities, but the Department of Public Health lists only 14 deaths in Barrow County attributable to the disease.

The Department of Community Health Report on Friday listed 370 long-term care facility residents at Northeast Health district facilities who had tested positive for COVID-19, up from 349 on Thursday, 99 COVID-19 Positive Staff, up from 97, and 58 deaths, up from 56 on Thursday.

The Georgia Emergency Management Agency, in its Friday Situation Report COVID-19, listed 11 Critical Care Hospital Beds available at area hospitals, down from 15 on Monday and 24 on May 23. The hospitals have 70 Critical Care Hospital Beds.

Oconee County Sheriff Scott Berry reported on Friday that the Georgia Emergency Management Agency added four new addresses to the county’s list of locations with an Active COVID-19 case, bringing the total number of addresses with an Active Case in the county to eight.

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