New cases of COVID-19 saw significant increases across Bulloch County over the weekend and during the past week, including big jumps in Bulloch County Schools and at Georgia Southern University.

In his report Monday, Ted Wynn, Bulloch’s Public Safety/Emergency Management Agency director, said Bulloch County recorded more than 200 new confirmed cases according to the Georgia Department of Public Health, pushing the county’s total number of cases to 6,104 since the pandemic started.

Also, nearly 30% of all COVID tests administered in the past seven days are coming back positive. On Monday, lines of cars stretched in both directions on East Main St. in downtown Statesboro waiting at the MAKO Medical COVID testing site on Railroad St. The wait was as long as two hours at one point. Testing at urgent care centers and physician’s offices also was crowded, and in some cases, testing appointments aren’t available until next week.

Wynn did report that for the first time in about three weeks, the number of patients hospitalized at East Georgia Regional Medical Center saw a small decline. After reporting a record high 54 patients on Saturday, there were 51 on Monday. However, 15 patients are on ventilators – the most ever.

Last week, Dr. Alan Scott, chief of staff and director of Emergency Services at East Georgia Regional Medical Center, said the surge in cases “places an immense burden on resources and the mental health of (our) already overwhelmed staff.”

Georgia Southern University

Across its campuses in Statesboro, Savannah and Hinesville, Georgia Southern reported 188 new cases – 29 university confirmed and 159 self-reported – for the week of Aug. 9-15, and 139 of the cases were reported in Statesboro. Classes began last Wednesday for the Fall 2021 semester.

“Our communities are experiencing what we are seeing throughout Georgia and in the rest of our nation as the number of new COVID-19 cases increases daily due to the spread of the Delta variant,” said Dr. Brian DeLoach, the university’s medical director for Student Health Services. “Every individual has the opportunity to impact their community for good. To promote the health and well-being of students and employees across our campuses, I continue to encourage all of Eagle Nation to follow public health guidelines and to get vaccinated as soon as possible.”

Bulloch County Schools

After reporting 67 cases after the first week of the 2021-22 school year, cases rocketed 500% last week, as 331 cases among students and staff were reported.

Georgia, national cases

Since its last report on Friday, the Georgia Department of Public Health said there were 14,130 confirmed new cases over the weekend. With 996,653 cases since the pandemic began in March 2020, Georgia is less than 4,000 cases short of reaching 1 million total cases.

Also, another 295 people had to be hospitalized over the weekend and currently more than 4,500 people are COVID patients in Georgia hospitals.

New cases around the U.S. are now averaging about 130,000 per day, according to Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, along with an average of 660 deaths per day due to COVID.

Testing

MAKO Medical offers testing services on Railroad St. in downtown Statesboro Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and on the last Saturday of each month from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

MAKO will ask for your insurance, but patients without insurance will not have to pay anything for testing. Results are available in two to three days.

Vaccines are readily available at area pharmacies, doctors’ offices, East Georgia Regional Medical Center and the Bulloch County Health Department.