On Aug. 12, 2020, East Georgia Regional Medical reported none of its COVID-19 patients needed a ventilator as part of their treatment. Since that day, at least one COVID patient in the hospital was on a ventilator – until Saturday.

Public Safety/Emergency Management Agency Director Ted Wynn said East Georgia reported Saturday that none of its seven patients needed a ventilator for the first time in 199 days. 

Unfortunately, two patients went on ventilators Sunday, but that was reduced to one on Monday, Wynn said.

Also, after reporting fewer than 10 COVID patients in the hospital for the first time since Dec. 6, East Georgia has now gone four consecutive days under 10 and had seven patients Monday.

Reports of new coronavirus cases in Bulloch are tracking a similar downward trend. The Georgia Department of Public Health reported only two new local COVID cases on Monday and five on Sunday. Wynn said Bulloch now has a total of 5,054 confirmed cases since the pandemic began in March 2020. The 5,054 total COVID cases have resulted in 50 confirmed deaths and 202 local residents being hospitalized since the pandemic began in March.

Vaccinations

Bulloch County received 2,600 more doses of Moderna vaccine last week and more shipments of both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are expected in the next day or two. The 12 approved providers by the Department of Health have administered 15,946 vaccines of the 16,700 announced doses shipped to the county, so far.

Through Monday afternoon, 2,060,352 vaccinations have been administered in Georgia – a total that includes 778,318 second doses, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health.

Currently, anyone 65 and older is eligible to receive a vaccine along with other groups, including health care workers and law enforcement and rescue personnel.

The eligible group will expand on March 8 to include Preschool and K-12 school employees, adults with intellectual disabilities and their caregivers and parents of children with complex medical conditions will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine in Georgia.

Further eligibility is expected to expand later in March to more people with high-risk health conditions.

Bulloch residents are urged to contact private providers such as East Georgia Regional Medical Center and local pharmacies directly to see if a vaccine appointment is available.

The only way to schedule an appointment at the Bulloch Health Department is to call (855) 473-4374. Officials asked callers to be patient while on hold to make an appointment.

If an appointment is not available at the Altman St. office in Statesboro, they can schedule an appointment at any of the health departments in the area through the same appointment number.

State cases

Across the state, with 1,549 new cases on Sunday and 1,227 on Monday, the state's total number of confirmed cases is now up to 819,730. Georgia has seen fewer than 2,500 new daily COVID cases for 13 consecutive days, a streak not seen since early October

The state reported two deaths on Sunday and 80 on Monday. Georgia’s death toll now stands at 15,148 since March 2020.

Hospitalizations

COVID cases that require hospitalization continue to see a strong decline in Georgia. After setting a single-day high Jan. 13 with 6,108 state residents hospitalized, that number dropped to 2,341 hospitalized on Sunday. Hospitalizations have declined almost every day since Jan. 13.

Across the United States, cases that require hospitalization have dropped significantly since hitting a peak on Jan. 6 of 132,474 Americans in the hospital with COVID. On Sunday, hospitalizations had dropped to 47,352. It marked the 47th consecutive day of a decline in hospitalizations.

National case numbers

According to statistics from the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine, as of Monday afternoon, 514,216 Americans had died from coronavirus. Also, Johns Hopkins reported the U.S. has had 28,648,156 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic.

Bulloch Schools

The Bulloch County Schools system reported 22 new cases last week, and a total of 592 COVID cases since classes started on Aug. 17.

Local colleges

For the third week in a row, Georgia Southern University saw a big drop in new cases this past week.

Georgia Southern had 21 total cases reported Feb. 22-28 — 17 self-reported and four university confirmed cases. GS reported 34 total cases for the week of Feb. 15-21.

The 21 new coronavirus cases include 16 on the Statesboro campus, five on the Armstrong-Savannah campus and none on the Liberty campus in Hinesville.

East Georgia State College reported one new case across its three campuses on Saturday. It was the first new case since Feb. 15. The college has had a total of 153 cases across its three campuses since Aug. 17.

Ogeechee Technical College reported no new cases for the week of Feb. 22–28. Ogeechee Tech has had a total of 67 cases across its campuses since Aug. 17.    

Testing sites

COVID-19 testing operated by Mako Medical is available at Luetta Moore Park, 585 Martin Luther King Drive.

Testing schedule: Monday, Wednesday — 8 a.m.–3 p.m.; Tuesday, Thursday — 10 a.m.–6 p.m.; Friday — 9 a.m.–4 p.m.; second and fourth Saturday of each month — 8:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

To register, visit https://mako.exchange/splash/GAmakotesting/.