For the third day this week, Bulloch County reported fewer than 10 new coronavirus cases, said Bulloch County Public Safety/Emergency Management Agency Director Ted Wynn. It is the first time in more than three months since Bulloch had a week where confirmed COVID-19 cases were under double digits for at least three days.
Thursday’s nine confirmed cases follows on the heels of six cases Monday and eight on Tuesday. The week of June 15-19 was the last time fewer than 10 cases were reported on three different days inside a single week.
Wynn said Bulloch has now recorded 2,845 COVID cases, which have resulted in 27 deaths and 132 local residents being hospitalized since the pandemic began in March.
Wynn said East Georgia Regional Medical Center staff were caring for 20 patients Thursday. Eight patients are on ventilators.
Bulloch EMS has transported a total of 125 people with probable COVID-19 and 129 with confirmed cases, he said.
On Thursday, Georgia reported 1,452 new COVID cases, raising the state’s total number of confirmed cases to 311,046. The state reported 52 deaths Thursday, raising the death toll to 6,822.
As of Thursday afternoon, 202,467 Americans had died from coronavirus, and the U.S. has recorded 6,962,333 confirmed cases, according to statistics from the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.
Bulloch County Schools
In its daily report, Bulloch County Schools reported four new cases Thursday, raising the total number of cases confirmed since school began on Aug. 17 to 85.
Also on Thursday, Bulloch County reported 180 students and employees were under quarantine, down from 190 quarantined on Wednesday.
Local colleges
Meanwhile, East Georgia State College has recorded no new, self-reported cases of COVID-19 since Monday. The last new case on EGSC’s Statesboro campus was on Sept. 14.
Ogeechee Technical College had five cases reported, all on its Bulloch County campus, the week of Sept. 14-20.
As previously reported, Georgia Southern University had 54 new cases, including 47 cases on the Statesboro campus, in the seven days that ended Sunday. These numbers have declined each week since with the case counts having dropped every week since Aug. 24-30, when 508 cases were reported among the university’s students and employees, including 487 on the Statesboro campus.
Testing sites
The Bulloch County Health Department, 1 W. Altman St., 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 Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at Luetta Moore Park, 121 Martin Luther King Jr Drive.