Since Monday, Georgia has seen its fewest new COVID-19 cases during a three-day period in more than two months.

Prior to the past three days, Georgia had recorded at least 8,500 cases in every three-day interval since Nov. 28-30, when the state totaled 5,895 new cases. For Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, Georgia reported 7,606 new cases, which continues a decline in state cases that began after Georgia hit its single-day high of 10,385 new cases on Jan. 8.

In Bulloch County, there were only 11 new cases reported for Monday and Tuesday combined, but that jumped up to 35 new COVID cases on Wednesday. Bulloch now has recorded 4,810 total COVID cases, which have resulted in 47 deaths and 188 local residents being hospitalized since the pandemic began in March.

Also, Bulloch County Public Safety/Emergency Management Agency Director Ted Wynn said the state Department of Health reported a Bulloch resident probably died due to the virus on Tuesday. According to the Georgia DPH, the now 36 non-confirmed deaths represent Bulloch citizens who received a positive antigen/rapid test for COVID-19, developed COVID-19 symptoms and then died. 

With 2,481 new cases reported Wednesday, the state's total number of confirmed cases is now up to 780,494. Georgia reported 121 confirmed deaths on Wednesday and the state death toll now stands at 13,599 since March.

Vaccines

The Bulloch County Health Department and most providers still have not resumed scheduling new vaccine appointments that were paused on Jan. 25. Amid a tight supply, officials said they want to be sure there is enough vaccine for second doses and for those who already have scheduled an appointment. 

The state has administered about 1.3 million doses as of Tuesday — about 72% of the vaccine it’s been allocated, according to the Department of Health website. The best-performing states have used more than 85% of their vaccine doses.

Hospitalizations

Wynn said East Georgia Regional Medical Center staff on Wednesday were caring for 23 COVID patients, with 10 patients on ventilators.

COVID cases that require hospitalization continue to see a strong decline in Georgia. After setting a single-day high Jan. 11 with 6,108 state residents hospitalized, that number dropped to 3,689 hospitalized on Tuesday. Hospitalizations have declined almost every day since Jan. 11.

Across the United States, cases that require hospitalization have seen a steady decline, as well, since hitting a peak on Jan. 6 of 132,474 Americans in the hospital with COVID. On Sunday, hospitalizations had dropped to 79,179. It marked the 28th consecutive day of a decline in hospitalizations and the first day since Nov. 18 they had dropped below 80,000.

National case numbers

According to statistics from the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine, as of Monday afternoon, 470,600 Americans had died from coronavirus. Also, Johns Hopkins reported the U.S. has had 27,263,914 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic.

Bulloch Schools

The Bulloch County Schools system has reported 19 new cases this week, for a total of 539 COVID cases since classes started on Aug. 17.

Local colleges

For the second week in a row, Georgia Southern University saw small increase in new cases this past week.

Georgia Southern had 80 total cases reported Feb. 1–7 — 69 self-reported and 11 university confirmed cases. GS reported 76 total cases for the week of Jan. 25–31.

East Georgia State College reported one new case across its three campuses on Monday. The college has had a total of 151 cases across its three campuses since Aug. 17.

Ogeechee Technical College reported two new cases for the week of Feb. 1–7. Both cases were recorded on the Statesboro campus. Ogeechee Tech has had a total of 63 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/.