After going the entire month of October without recording more than 20 new cases in any single day, Bulloch County surpassed 20 cases on the second day of November.
Public Safety/Emergency Management Agency Director Ted Wynn said Bulloch reported 23 new cases on Monday — the most cases since 40 were recorded on Sept. 23.
Also, the percentage of positive COVID tests rose to an average of 8.5% over the past seven days, the highest rate since Sept. 26. The Georgia Department of Health’s guidelines cite a seven-day average of less than 5% as the goal.
Meanwhile, the four new cases reported Saturday gave Bulloch a total of 215 cases for the month of October, its fewest in a month since May.
Including Monday’s 23 new cases, the county has now recorded 3,129 total COVID cases, which have resulted in 33 deaths and 147 local residents being hospitalized since the pandemic began in March.
In his report Monday, Wynn said East Georgia Regional Medical Center staff were caring for 27 patients, with five patients on ventilators.
Bulloch EMS has transported a total of 128 people with probable COVID-19 and 141 with confirmed cases.
New positive cases at Georgia Southern have leveled off in recent weeks, with 18 cases reported for the week of Oct. 26–Nov. 1. That follows 14 new cases for the week of Oct. 19–25 and 19 for Oct. 12–18.
“After completing 11 full weeks of classes at Georgia Southern, (this week’s) report reflects that positive case reports remain low and stable with 3 university-confirmed and 15 self-reported cases last week,” university officials said in a statement on the COVID-19 information part of the Georgia Southern website.
Georgia Southern will report again next Monday, Nov. 9.
Georgia reported 1,016 new cases on Monday, 2,476 on Saturday and 1,281 on Sunday, bringing the state’s total number of confirmed cases up to 362,921. Georgia reported 19 deaths on Monday, 23 on Saturday and three on Sunday, raising the death toll to 7,999.
As of Monday afternoon, 231,227 Americans had died from coronavirus, and the U.S. had recorded 9,247,036 confirmed cases, according to statistics from the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.
Bulloch Schools
Bulloch County Schools recorded one new case since Friday. The schools system now has had a total of 119 COVID cases since Aug. 17.
Local colleges
East Georgia State College has not reported any new cases on any of its three campuses since Oct. 21. The college has had a total of 92 cases across its three campuses since Aug. 17.
Ogeechee Technical College reported one new COVID case on its campuses the week of Oct. 19–25. The college has had a total of 37 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.