Oconee County Adds 21 COVID-19 Cases And One Death

Oconee County added 21 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and one additional death attributed to the disease on Friday with the issuance of the 1 p.m. Daily Status Report of the Department of Public Health.

That brings to 103 the number of confirmed cases in the county since the Department of Public Health began issuing its reports in the middle of March and brings the number of deaths to four.

The newly recorded death in the Department of Public Health report was of a male, aged 90 plus, without known chronic conditions

The Department of Community Health, which issues its own report on confirmed cases and deaths among long-term care facility residents, on Wednesday had listed a fourth death at the High Shoals Health and Rehabilitation nursing home in the western part of the county.

That report also added 12 new COVID-19 Positive Residents at the nursing home, bringing the total to 38 of the 75 residents in the home. The figure did not change with the Thursday report.

The Georgia Emergency Management Agency also is issuing reports on COVID-19, and Oconee County Sheriff Scott Berry receives a report from that agency on the number of Active COVID-19 addresses in the county.

Berry posted on Facebook on Friday that “19 new cases were added to our nursing home address” and that “There were no additional cases added outside of that address.”

Berry reported on May 15 that he had been told one of his active addresses had 14 COVID-19 Active Cases, which would bring the total at that address to 33, not the 38 listed in the Department of Community Health Report at the North High Shoals facility.

No other Oconee county long-term care facility is on the Department of Community Health list of homes with a COVID-19 case.

The three state agencies releasing data on COVID-19 do not coordinate reports, and discrepancies are common.

For more on the data in the most recent state reports on COVID-19, please go to Oconee County Observations.