While awaiting the first vaccines to be delivered locally, Bulloch County recorded 29 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, its worst single day for cases since Sept. 23.
Public Safety/Emergency Management Agency Director Ted Wynn, said Bulloch recorded 50 new cases for Saturday, Sunday and Monday combined.
Bulloch has now recorded 3,561 total COVID cases, which have resulted in 35 deaths and 156 local residents being hospitalized since the pandemic began in March.
Also, the state Department of Health is reporting an additional 21 deaths in Bulloch probably were caused by COVID. According to the Georgia DPH, the 21 non-confirmed deaths represent Bulloch citizens who received a positive antigen/rapid test for COVID-19, developed COVID-19 symptoms and subsequently died.
A second COVID-19 vaccine was approved late Friday, but no official information has been released on a timetable for when either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine would be available in Bulloch County.
Wynn said East Georgia Regional Medical Center staff on Monday were caring for 17 COVID patients, with seven patients on ventilators.
Also, COVID cases that require hospitalization continue to reach high numbers in Georgia, but after setting a new daily record for most hospitalizations for almost three straight weeks, the United States has seen three consecutive days of decline in hospitalizations. Since last Thursday, national hospitalizations have declined from 114,359 to 113,663 hospitalized on Sunday, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
On the other hand, Georgia set another single-day record for most hospitalizations with 3,787 on Sunday, marking the 23rd day in the past 24 the state has seen an increase in hospitalizations, according to the COVID Tracking Project. Since Dec. 1, Georgia has seen daily hospitalizations rise from 2,634 to 3,787 – a 44-percent increase in less than three weeks.
State, national case numbers
Georgia recorded 3,121 new cases Monday, and the state's total number of confirmed cases is now up to 512,699. Georgia reported 16 deaths on Monday, raising the death toll to 9,453.
According to statistics from the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine, as of Monday afternoon, 318,782 Americans had died from coronavirus. Also, Johns Hopkins reported the U.S. has had 17,959,886 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic.
Bulloch Schools
The Bulloch County Schools system reported one new cases this week for a total of 232 COVID cases since classes started on Aug. 17.
Local colleges
For the last week of the fall semester, Georgia Southern recorded 14 new cases for the week of Dec. 14-20. Thirteen of the new cases were on the Statesboro campus. Georgia Southern will report again on Monday, Dec. 28.
East Georgia State College reported no new cases of COVID-19 over the weekend. The college has had a total of 105 cases across its three campuses since Aug. 17.
Ogeechee Technical College reported no new cases for the week of Dec. 14-20. The college has had a total of 39 cases across its campuses since Aug. 17.
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 Thursdays from 9 a.m. to noon at Luetta Moore Park, 121 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.