After reporting 508 COVID-19 cases among students and staff for the week of Aug. 24–30, Georgia Southern University saw the total number of cases reported last week fall about 29% to 363.
The cases are separated by Georgia Southern into two categories, university confirmed and self-reported, and now total 942 — 654 self-reported and 288 university confirmed — since the university resumed in-person classes on Aug. 17. Of the 942 cases, 899 are on the Statesboro campus, 42 are on the Armstrong campus, and the Hinesville campus recorded its first case last week.
The Aug. 31–Sept. 6 numbers were made available to the public Monday on the University’s “COVID-19 Exposure and Health Alerts” web page. The page may be accessed here: https://www.georgiasouthern.edu/covid-19-information/exposure-health/.
In a note on the web page, Georgia Southern wrote: “The report shows a decline from last week in confirmed and self-reported cases after completion of the third full week of classes on our campuses. As an institution of nearly 27,000 students and 3,350 employees, positive reports represent a very small proportion of our overall university population. …
“While we have been pleased with how the university community is complying with public health guidelines on our campuses, we must remain vigilant in our efforts if we want to continue the semester as we have started.”
Meanwhile, over the three-day Labor Day holiday weekend, Bulloch County recorded 140 new COVID-19 cases — 37 Saturday, 69 on Sunday and 34 on Monday.
In his Monday report to the public, Bulloch County Public Safety/Emergency Management Agency Director Ted Wynn said Bulloch now has 2,439 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began in March. The county has seen an increase of 825 cases since Aug. 28.
Wynn said East Georgia Regional Medical Center staff were caring for 22 patients Sunday. Five patients are on ventilators.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Bulloch County has reported 124 hospitalizations and 22 deaths. Bulloch EMS has transported a total of 106 people with probable COVID-19 and 114 with confirmed cases, he said.
Bulloch County Schools reported over the long weekend that there were 51 COVID-19 positive cases within its student and faculty body — public schools only — with 461 quarantined.
At East Georgia State College, officials reported 19 cases, both confirmed and self-reported, on the Statesboro campus and 36 cases overall on its three campuses as of Monday.
Ogeechee Technical College is reporting cases weekly and had 12 confirmed cases as of Monday.
For the Labor Day weekend, Georgia reported 4,457 new COVID cases — 2,181 cases on Saturday, 1,664 on Sunday and 612 on Monday. Monday’s total of 612 was the lowest one-day total since 524 cases were reported on June 7. Georgia's total number of confirmed cases is 283,807. The state reported seven deaths Monday, raising the death toll past to 6,044.
As of Monday afternoon, 188,983 Americans have died from coronavirus, and the U.S. has recorded 6,312,100 confirmed cases, according to statistics from the New York Times.
Appointments for free COVID testing at the Specimen Point of Collection site at 1 W. Altman St. in Statesboro may be made by calling (855) 473-4374 or by visiting www.sehdph.org/covid-19/.