COVID-19 cases continued to decline in Athens last week. Clarke County had a seven-day running average of 1.1 new cases per day as of Mar. 25. The Georgia Department of Public Health reported 25 cases in Clarke County over the past two weeks, bringing the total to 26,112 confirmed cases and 3,441 positive antigen tests..
Only six patients, or 1% of all patients, were hospitalized with COVID-19 in the Athens region. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 1,148 Clarke County residents have been hospitalized. ICU beds were at 81% capacity, with 57 patients in the ICU for the region.
While COVID-19 cases continue to decline, five Athens residents died of the virus in the last two weeks. To date, at least 214 Clarke County residents have died of COVID-19.
Wastewater data from professor Erin Lipp’s lab at the UGA Center for the Ecology of Infectious Diseases continues to give further insight into viral levels in the community. “Averaged for the week and across all plants, the SARS‑CoV‑2 load increased slightly compared to last week, but this seems to continue the stable but noisy pattern that we have seen over the last three weeks,” the report last week said. Virus levels were particularly high at the wastewater treatment plant that serves the Eastside. This could indicate increased transmission levels from that part of town, or it could be the result of septic pumping from other counties or the fact that ACC’s two other plants treat more industrial waste.
Vaccination rates continue to increase at a slow pace. In the last two weeks, 156 Clarke County residents received a first dose, and another 133 residents were fully vaccinated. As of Mar. 25, 66,307 residents, or 53%, have received at least one dose, and 61,660 residents, or 49%, have been fully vaccinated.
At UGA, there were 20 positive cases for the week of March 14-18, with 262 surveillance tests administered. There were 70 vaccinations administered for the week, for a total of 33,555 doses administered to date.
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