Tuesday evening, while Statesboro officials drew attention to ongoing COVID-19 testing and vaccination efforts, Mayor Jonathan McCollar reported that he had tested positive for the coronavirus back on Jan. 4.

McCollar, who experienced mild symptoms and has since recovered, presided in-person at the regular City Council session and preceding work session Tuesday. But at the first meeting of the year, the morning of Jan. 5, he had appeared remotely via Zoom while Mayor Pro Tempore Paulette Chavers, the council member from District 2, conducted the meeting in-person.

“Like I’ve said many times before, this is something that we’re going to get through, and we’re going to get through it together,” McCollar said Tuesday. “I do want to report to the city of Statesboro that on January the 4th I tested positive for the coronavirus. I am extremely fortunate that I had very mild symptoms.”

Interviewed later, he said he first noticed he had a cough Dec. 31, felt bad over the weekend and got tested that Monday, Jan. 4. His symptoms included chills, severe fatigue, body aches and temporary loss of the senses of taste and smell. But he recovered while isolating at home for one week, until Sunday, Jan. 10. His wife also tested positive, isolated at home and had a similar recovery, McCollar said.

“I’m more than thankful to have had those mild symptoms as we’ve lost 66 people in our community because of this virus,” the mayor told the council and public Tuesday. “What I can tell you is we’ve taken every precaution, we wore our masks, we washed our hands, but still managed to contract the virus, and I can tell you even with mild symptoms, this is something that you do not want to deal with.”

The number he cited was the total of deaths “confirmed” and “probable” from COVID-19 that had been reported, as of Tuesday, among Bulloch County residents since the start of the pandemic. The Bulloch County total rose to 67 deaths with Wednesday’s Georgia Department of Public Health, or DPH, report. This included 42 deaths with coronavirus as the “confirmed” cause and 25 “probable.”

“So please, Statesboro, take every precaution to protect your family, to protect yourselves, and the quickest path back to normalcy is the  making sure that we adhere to the Centers for Disease Control guidelines and that we continue to listen to the experts in the field,” MCollar said.

When phoned with follow-up questions Wednesday, the mayor said he wondered if he may have contracted the virus while attending his sister’s funeral the day after Christmas. Masks were worn, but some contact among people was unavoidable, he said.  His sister, Lanette Hayton of Savannah, died of an illness not related to COVID.

Vaccination concerns

City officials had talked about COVID testing and vaccinations a little earlier in Tuesday evening’s meeting.

District 1 Councilman Phil Boyum had previously requested a report of Bulloch County-specific numbers on vaccinations administered so far.

City Manager Charles Penny had forwarded that request to Ted Wynn, Bulloch County’s public safety and Emergency Management Agency director. But as of Tuesday, a county-level breakdown not been available from the Georgia DPH, Penny explained.

“I was on a call today, and so far in the state they’ve vaccinated about 400,000 people, and I asked the question for Bulloch County, because this was with DPH, and they couldn’t give me Bulloch County by itself. …,” Penny said. “The reason is that it’s a lot more difficult, because DPH is doing vaccinations, but you also have drug stores and you have hospitals and a lot of other folks doing that.”

The DPH has been monitoring the statewide numbers but did not yet have reports with county information from all of these locations, he said.

“A lot of these providers are not in the habit of reporting this information daily,” added District 5 Councilwoman Shari Barr, who cited remarks by Gov. Brian Kemp. “The Health Department does,” Barr said. “They vaccinate people all of the time, and they know they have to turn stuff in.”

At this point, the vaccine has been released where available for people age 65 and up, people 16-64 with underlying medical conditions and essential workers, as well as the earlier top-priority groups, which were those age 75 and up, frontline essential workers and residents of long-term care facilities.

About 2 million people statewide were now eligible to receive the vaccine, including the more than 400,000 already vaccinated, Penny said. He added that efforts to administer the vaccine are expected to ramp up in February if supplies are available.

New testing site

Meanwhile, the city was helping to get the word out about a change in locations for COVID-19 testing. The Georgia DPH contracted with Mako Medical to reopen a site, beginning Tuesday, at Luetta Moore Park, 121 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

Individuals from Bulloch County and surrounding areas can register for an appointment online at https://mako.exchange/splash/GAmakotesting/.  Walk-ups are allowed, but pre-registering is preferred.

Testing will be available Monday through Friday and on the second and fourth Saturday of the month. Hours are Monday and Wednesday 8 a.m.-3 p.m.; Tuesday and Thursday 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; and Friday 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

The relocation of testing to this site is meant to relieve traffic and the workload at the Bulloch County Health Department, 1 W Altman St., so the department can focus its efforts on vaccinations, said Layne Phillips, public information officer at City Hall.

A COVID-19 testing site previously operated at Luetta Moore Park for a time in 2020 by an arrangement between the city and a different health care agency.

“The City of Statesboro” and “Squashing the Spread Bulloch” pages on Facebook carry updates about testing and vaccination efforts.