As the number of new COVID-19 cases continues to see a rapid decline in Bulloch County and around the nation, restrictions regarding masks and the vaccine are being loosened or eliminated altogether.
The Georgia Department of Public Health said Bulloch County reported 79 new COVID cases in the past week. In the weeks since Jan. 18–24, new local cases have fallen from 862 to 504 to 236 to 139 to the 79 cases recorded for Feb. 15–21 — that’s a decline of 92% since Jan. 24.
Also, the fewest number of COVID patients are currently hospitalized at East Georgia Regional Medical Center since Dec. 20, 2021. Ted Wynn, director of the Bulloch Public Safety/Emergency Management Agency, said the hospital was treating 11 COVID-19 patients on Monday, with four on ventilators. That compares with 21 patients last week and six on ventilators.
Average daily COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are continuing to fall in the U.S., an indicator that the omicron variant’s hold is weakening across the country.
While almost 2,200 Americans, on average, are still dying due to COVID, total confirmed cases reported Saturday barely exceeded 100,000, a sharp downturn from around 800,850 five weeks ago on Jan. 16, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
COVID-19 hospitalizations are down from a national seven-day average of 146,534 on Jan. 20 to 80,185 the week ending in Feb. 13, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Public health experts say they are feeling hopeful that more declines are ahead and that the country is shifting from being in a pandemic to an “endemic” that is more consistent and predictable.
‘Endemic’ stage
In fact, California became the first state to formally shift to an “endemic” approach to the coronavirus with Gov. Gavin Newsom's announcement of a plan that emphasizes prevention and quick reaction to outbreaks over mandated masking and business shutdowns.
“We are moving past the crisis phase into a phase where we will work to live with this virus," he said.
A disease reaches the endemic stage when the virus still exists in a community but becomes manageable as immunity builds.
Officials in many states are cutting back on restrictions, saying they are moving away from treating the coronavirus pandemic as a public health crisis and instead shifting to policy focused on prevention.
Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University’s School of Medicine said Sunday that the downturn in case numbers and hospitalizations is encouraging. He agreed that it likely has a lot to do with herd immunity.
“There are two sides to omicron’s coin,” he said. “The bad thing is that it can spread to a lot of people and make them mildly ill. The good thing is it can spread to a lot of people and make them mildly ill, because in doing so, it has created a lot of natural immunity.”
Bulloch County Schools
Bulloch County Schools were on Winter Break last week, so no new cases were reported. The week before, only 22 new COVID cases were recorded for the week of Feb. 6–12, down 95% from the 403 cases reported Jan. 16–22.
Georgia Southern University
Georgia Southern University has seen the number of COVID cases drop 93% from the 502 reported across its three campuses the week of Jan. 17–23 to 34 for the most recent week of Feb. 14–20.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.