During a week where Bulloch County didn’t record more than eight new COVID-19 cases in a single day, four county residents died Oct. 5–11 — the most in a seven-day period since the pandemic began in March.
However, Bulloch County continued its run of declining cases as Public Safety/Emergency Management Agency Director Ted Wynn reported five new cases on Monday. Also, while Georgia Southern reported a slight uptick in cases after seeing five consecutive weeks of fewer cases week over week, the 14 total cases for the week of Oct. 5–11 was only two more than the previous week. Twelve of the cases were on the Statesboro campus.
And Bulloch County Schools just completed a week with four new cases of COVID-19 reported — its lowest weekly total since school began on Aug. 17.
With two deaths reported Friday and one each on Thursday and Saturday, Public Safety/Emergency Management Agency Director Ted Wynn said 32 local residents have now died from coronavirus.
Wynn said the victim Saturday was a 63-year-old woman. It was not known if she suffered from any comorbidities.
On Monday, Bulloch had five new cases to go with four on Saturday and eight on Sunday, and now has recorded 2,964 COVID cases, which have resulted in the 32 aforementioned deaths and 135 local residents being hospitalized since the pandemic began in March.
In his report Monday, Wynn said East Georgia Regional Medical Center staff were caring for 14 patients, with three patients on ventilators.
Bulloch EMS has transported a total of 126 people with probable COVID-19 and 134 with confirmed cases, he said. Wynn’s report Saturday marked the first new COVID patient EMS had transported since Sept. 29.
Georgia reported 937 cases on Monday, along with 1,215 on Saturday and 1,162 on Sunday, bringing the state’s total number of confirmed cases up to 332,311. Georgia reported 14 deaths Monday, 45 on Saturday and 23 on Sunday, raising the death toll to 7,429.
As of Monday afternoon, 214,985 Americans had died from coronavirus, and the U.S. had recorded 7,792,816 confirmed cases, according to statistics from the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.
Bulloch schools
For the week that ended Saturday, Bulloch County Schools recorded four new cases among students and staff. With two reported Monday, the school system has now had a total of 101 COVID cases since schools opened on Aug. 17.
Local colleges
On Monday, East Georgia State College reported one new case of COVID-19. The college has had a total of 85 cases across its three campuses since Aug. 17.
Ogeechee Technical College reported no new COVID cases on any of its campuses the week of Oct. 5-11. The college has had a total of 32 cases across its campuses since Aug. 17.
OTC will report again next Monday, Oct. 19.
Testing sites
The Bulloch County Health Department, 1 W. Altman St. in Statesboro, continues to serve as a COVID-19 testing site, or specimen point of collection. It operates 8 a.m. till noon Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. To schedule a free test, call (855) 473-4374 or visit www.sehdph.org/covid-19, where a test can be scheduled online.
Additional free COVID-19 testing continues Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at Luetta Moore Park, 121 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.