COVID-19 data for Clarke County last week continued to show signs that the worst of the Omicron variant wave may be over, as new cases declined by more than half, and hospitalizations and deaths slowed further for another consecutive week.
The seven-day moving average of new cases declined to 32 per day as of Feb. 11 from a high of 257 just a month ago, the lowest it’s been since Dec. 12. There were 233 new confirmed COVID-19 cases in Clarke County last week, with an additional 11 positive antigen tests, for a total of 25,826 confirmed cases and 3,410 positive antigen tests since the start of the pandemic. Data from UGA professor Erin Lipp’s wastewater lab update last week also showed a continued decline of the virus across all plants.
Rates of new cases among children also declined significantly last week. According to the Georgia Department of Public Health’’s School Aged Surveillance Data report for Feb. 10, the 14-day case rate declined across all age categories, with 90 cases for children ages 0-4, 189 cases for children ages 5-17 and 188 cases for the 18-22 year old category.
Hospitalizations and deaths, which lag behind new cases in pandemic data, also showed some improvement. Nineteen people were hospitalized for COVID-19 in Clarke County last week, down from 25 the previous week. One Clarke County resident died of the virus. To date, there have been 1,088 hospitalizations and at least 192 deaths among Clarke County residents.
The number of patients in local hospitals for COVID-19 from Clarke and other neighboring counties declined by nearly half. As of Feb. 11, 112 patients, or 17% of all patients in local hospitals, were hospitalized for COVID-19. The week prior, COVID-19 patients made up 30% of all patients. Intensive care units also saw some relief last week, with 64 patients occupying 91% of ICU beds, a decline from 72 patients occupying 97% of ICU beds the previous week.
While new cases continue to decline significantly, rates of vaccination remained stagnant for Clarke County, with just 138 new first doses and 187 second doses administered to Athens residents last week. Only 52%, or 65,754, Athens residents have received at least one dose of vaccine, and 48%, or 61,045 residents, have been fully vaccinated to date. Booster shots have been given to 29,067 people.
Child vaccination rates are also at a near standstill, with 25 new doses administered to children ages 5-9, 12 doses administered to children ages 10-14 and nine doses administered to children ages 15-19 for the week. To date, 26% of children ages 5-9, 45% of children ages 10-14 and 26% of people ages 15-19 have received at least one dose of vaccine.
At UGA, new vaccinations for the week held steady again, with 159 doses administered for the week of Jan. 31- Feb. 4. To date, UGA has fully vaccinated 18,156 people and administered 5,316 booster doses. Cases declined by more than half from the previous week, with just 158 reported. Surveillance testing declined to 652 tests for the week, compared to 1,245 tests administered the previous week.
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