According to the Georgia Department of Public Health vaccination website, the number of Bulloch County residents who have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine increased by nearly 3,000 people and jumped from 17% of the population to 21% — all since Monday.
However, there wasn’t a massive rush in the past two days on vaccine providers in Bulloch. The large increase in Bulloch and all Georgia counties is actually due to the “Georgia DPH implementing process improvements on the interactive vaccine dashboard,” to more accurately reflect the real number of local vaccinations already administered, said Katie Hadden, public information officer for the Southeast Health District.
“A large number of vaccine (doses) that were previously in the ‘unknown’ category have been updated and accurately assigned to a county of residence,” Hadden said. “These vaccinations were always included in the state totals, but it has caused the county percentages and total number of residents vaccinated to increase. This data update is a great thing as it provides a more accurate view of what is happening at the county level.”
With the now accurate numbers, Bulloch went from 13,111 residents who had received at least one dose as of Monday to 16,071 on Wednesday. Also, the number of residents fully vaccinated increased from 11,536 on Monday to 12,687 on Wednesday.
In counties surrounding Bulloch, according to the Department of Health, Bryan County has the highest percentage of residents with at least one dose at 31%. Screven County is at 27%, Candler is at 26% and Evans at 25%. Effingham County is at 23%, while Emanuel and Bulloch are tied at 21%. Jenkins County is lowest at 20%.
Around Georgia, the two counties with the highest vaccination rate for at least one dose are Oconee County at 43% and Fayette County at 41%.
According to the CDC's COVID-19 vaccine distribution and administration data tracker, only Utah and Alabama have a worse percentage of its population fully vaccinated than Georgia, which is at 22.81%. Tennessee and Mississippi round out the bottom five.
Maine leads the nation with 37.44% of its population fully vaccinated, followed closely by Connecticut, Vermont, New Mexico and Rhode Island.
Across Georgia, 3,552,339 residents have received at least one dose and 2,519,197 are fully vaccinated.
Local vaccine appointments are readily available at more than two dozen locations across Bulloch County, including pharmacies, East Georgia Regional Medical Center, local doctors’ offices and the Bulloch Health Department.
Local, state COVID cases
Public Safety/Emergency Management Agency Director Ted Wynn said four new cases were confirmed on Tuesday and one on Wednesday. The county now has a total of 5,244 confirmed cases since the pandemic began in March 2020. Overall, the COVID cases have resulted in 64 confirmed deaths and 218 local residents being hospitalized since the pandemic began in March.
Also, the state Department of Health has reported 48 non-confirmed deaths, which represent Bulloch citizens who received a positive antigen/ rapid test for COVID-19, developed COVID symptoms and then died.
Across the state, there were 839 new cases on Tuesday and 922 on Wednesday. The state's total number of confirmed cases is now up to 877,816.
The state reported five deaths on Tuesday and 64 on Wednesday. Georgia’s death toll now stands at 17,486 since March 2020.
National cases
According to statistics from the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine, as of Wednesday afternoon, 574,156 Americans had died from coronavirus. Also, Johns Hopkins reported the U.S. has had 32,214,382 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic.
Bulloch Schools
The Bulloch County Schools system has had four new cases this week. A total of 638 COVID cases have been reported since classes started on Aug. 17. Since the beginning of March, the system has reported a total of only 43 new cases.
Local colleges
Georgia Southern had 12 total cases reported April 19–25 — 11 self-reported and one university-confirmed case. GS reported 12 total cases for the week of April 12-18.
East Georgia State College has reported no new cases since April 18. The college has had a total of 159 cases across its three campuses since Aug. 17.
Ogeechee Technical College reported one new case the week of April 19-25 on the Bulloch campus. Ogeechee Tech has had a total of 73 cases across its campuses since Aug. 17.