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After drop, Bulloch seeing COVID bump
Wynn urges ‘personal responsibility’
Corona
Ted Wynn

After a drop early last week in newly confirmed COVID-19 cases among Bulloch County residents, the virus has seen a local resurgence. In the past five days, 167 news coronavirus cases have been diagnosed — an average of more than 33 new cases per day.

There were 42 new cases reported Monday, bringing the total to 1,304 Bulloch residents who have tested positive for COVID-19 since the pandemic began. More half that number — 709 —have appeared between July 10 and Aug. 10, said Bulloch County Public Safety/Emergency Management Agency Director Ted Wynn.

Records show an increase of 344 confirmed cases in the last two weeks, he said, and he reminded the public that social distancing and wearing masks in public will help “squash the spread.”

“Personal responsibility is what we need to really cut the numbers and make it safe for all of us,” Wynn said.

Free face masks will be given to people who need them this week. The masks are available to pick up at the Statesboro Convention and Visitors Bureau on South Main Street, Friday from 5–7 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m.–noon.

Although cases are on the rise, there is a drop in the number of patients on ventilators at East Georgia Regional Medical Center; only two of the 17 COVID-positive patients there Monday were on vents, he said.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been a total of 87 hospitalizations and 14 deaths officially reported in Bulloch County. Two additional local COVID-19 deaths add up to 16, but the official numbers do not yet reflect the actual deaths, either due to a “lag in reporting” or because two recent deaths at a local nursing home may actually have been considered residents of another county, Wynn said.

To date, Bulloch County EMS has transported 87 patients with probable COVID-19 and 71 patients confirmed to have the coronavirus, he said.

The state of Georgia confirmed 2,440 additional coronavirus cases Monday, pushing its total since March to 219,025 cases. Also, 32 more Georgians died on Saturday and Sunday combined, bringing the state death total to 4,229.

In the United States, as of Monday afternoon, the nation pushed well past 5 million total cases over the weekend, to 5,033,960 confirmed coronavirus cases, adding 169,585 new cases in the past three days. And 2,838 more Americans died in that same three-day period, for a total of 163,275 total deaths, according to statistics from Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.

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