As the United States surpassed 500,000 deaths due to the COVID-19 pandemic on Monday, new cases around the country, the state and Bulloch County are seeing a significant decline.
Public Safety/Emergency Management Agency Director Ted Wynn said the Georgia Department of Public Health reported only six new COVID cases in Bulloch County for Sunday and Monday combined – three each day. The 71 total new cases recorded in the past week were the lowest number of weekly cases in Bulloch since 69 were reported for the seven-day period Nov. 30-Dec. 7.
Bulloch now has recorded 4,982 total COVID cases, which have resulted in 47 deaths and 194 local residents being hospitalized since the pandemic began in March, Wynn said.
Across the state, case numbers continued to see a significant decline in the past two weeks. The state's total number of confirmed cases is now up to 806,119, an increase of 13,610 cases in the past week, but 3,433 fewer cases less than the 17,043 new cases that were reported for the week of Feb. 9-15.
The state, reported eight deaths on Sunday and 56 on Monday. The state death toll now stands at 14,689 since March.
While the grim number of 500,071 dead Americans since the pandemic began in 2020 is a stunningly tragic figure, both the average number of daily deaths and new daily cases have seen big declines recently. There were 1,287 deaths reported Sunday, compared to 5,427 – the nation’s worst day – on Feb. 12. New cases have declined from the single-day record of 295,121 on Jan. 8 to 58,702 reported Sunday.
Vaccinations
Through Monday afternoon, 1,756,979 vaccinations have been administered in Georgia – a total that includes 602,818 second doses, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health. In Bulloch County, the Department of Health website indicates 14,182 vaccines have been given. The site also indicates only 14,100 total doses have been allocated so far by the state to Bulloch, which, according to vaccines given, can’t be correct. The vaccine list has not been updated since Feb. 16 and contains errors, so it is unclear if it is reliable.
Currently, anyone 65 and older is eligible to receive a vaccine along with other groups, including health care workers and law enforcement and rescue personnel.
The only way to schedule an appointment at the Bulloch Health Department is to call (855) 473-4374. Officials asked callers to be patient while on hold to make an appointment.
If an appointment is not available at the Altman St. office in Statesboro, they can schedule an appointment at any of the health departments in the area through the same appointment number.
Hospitalizations
Wynn said East Georgia Regional Medical Center staff on Monday were caring for 13 COVID patients, with six patients on ventilators.
COVID cases that require hospitalization continue to see a strong decline in Georgia. After setting a single-day high Jan. 13 with 6,108 state residents hospitalized, that number dropped to 2,778 hospitalized on Sunday. Hospitalizations have declined almost every day since Jan. 13.
Across the United States, cases that require hospitalization have been cut well in half since hitting a peak on Jan. 6 of 132,474 Americans in the hospital with COVID. On Sunday, hospitalizations had dropped to 56,159. It marked the 40th consecutive day of a decline in hospitalizations.
National case numbers
According to statistics from the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine, as of Monday afternoon, 500,071 Americans had died from coronavirus. Also, Johns Hopkins reported the U.S. has had 28,174,133 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic.
Bulloch Schools
The Bulloch County Schools system reported 14 new cases this week, and a total of 584 COVID cases since classes started on Aug. 17. Schools were closedlast week for Winter Break.
Local colleges
For the second week in a row, Georgia Southern University saw a 35% drop in new cases this past week.
Georgia Southern had 34 total cases reported Feb. 15-21 — 28 self-reported and six university confirmed cases. GS reported 52 total cases for the week of Feb. 8-14.
The 34 new coronavirus cases include 24 on the Statesboro campus, nine on the Armstrong-Savannah campus and one on the Liberty campus in Hinesville.
East Georgia State College reported no new cases across its three campuses in the past week. The college has had a total of 153 cases across its three campuses since Aug. 17.
Ogeechee Technical College reported three new cases for the week of Feb. 15–21. Ogeechee Tech has had a total of 67 cases across its campuses since Aug. 17.
Testing sites
COVID-19 testing operated by Mako Medical is available at Luetta Moore Park, 585 Martin Luther King Drive.
Testing schedule: Monday, Wednesday — 8 a.m.–3 p.m.; Tuesday, Thursday — 10 a.m.–6 p.m.; Friday — 9 a.m.–4 p.m.; second and fourth Saturday of each month — 8:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
To register, visit https://mako.exchange/splash/GAmakotesting/.