New COVID-19 cases among Clarke County residents continued to decline last week, but new hospitalizations held steady, and seven Athens residents died of the virus. To date, COVID-19 has killed at least 199 Clarke County residents.
The seven-day moving average declined again this week from 32 the previous week to 17 as of Feb. 18. Clarke County had 122 new confirmed cases for the week and an additional 15 positive antigen tests. To date, there have been 25,948 confirmed COVID-19 cases for the county and an additional 3,425 positive antigen tests.
While new cases declined, the seven-day positive test rate for the week was 12%. According to public health experts, the positivity rate should be at or below 5% in order to make sure a community is testing enough to find the virus. Cases are likely being undercounted, as recent research and data analysis suggests that the prevalence of at-home tests alongside the public’s COVID fatigue mean that fewer test results are being reported officially to DPH.
Wastewater data via UGA’s Center for the Ecology of Infectious Diseases continues to give the community another way to measure viral levels. According to UGA professor Erin Lipp’s wastewater lab report for the week, viral levels declined for another consecutive week. Levels for the plant that processes waste for the UGA campus, downtown and north Athens “reached levels not observed since last summer.” Levels for the other two plants reached levels similar to those in late November.
Seventeen Clarke County residents were hospitalized with COVID-19 last week, for a total of 1,105 hospitalizations to date, but the percent of patients with COVID-19, which include residents from Clarke and surrounding counties, declined to 14.9%, or 95 patients, compared to 17.4%, or 112 patients, the previous week. ICU capacity was at 87% for the week, with 61 ICU patients as of Feb. 18.
Vaccination efforts continue to inch along, with 120 first doses and 140 second doses administered to Clarke County residents last week. Vaccination rates remain at 52% who’ve received at least one dose and 48% who are fully vaccinated. Of the fully vaccinated, 47% have received a booster shot. Only 24 doses of the vaccine were administered to Clarke County children ages 5-14 last week. To date, 25% of children ages 5-9 and 44% of children ages 10-14 have received at least one dose.
At UGA for the week of Feb. 7-11, there were 154 vaccine doses administered. UGA reported 87 positive cases for the week, down by nearly half from the previous week, and there were 552 surveillance tests administered on campus.
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