Statesboro mayor credits rise in COVID-19 cases to Greek life, urges community to ‘Do Right’
Mayor: “This spike is not coming as a surprise.”
September 1, 2020
STATESBORO — In a Tuesday afternoon press conference, Statesboro Mayor Jonathan McCollar told reporters the recent spike in positive cases was not a surprise, going as far as to credit half the cases to Greek life.
“The uptick in cases that they saw, nearly half of those came from Greeks and a rush that occurred prior to classes starting,” said McCollar. “[Georgia Southern] immediately communicated with these organizations. What these organizations have done is move all social events online. So that’s a win.”
“This spike is not coming as a surprise. It’s something that we have been preparing for for months,” McCollar added.
The George-Anne reached out to Jennifer Wise, director of communications, and Fransisco Lugo, director of fraternity and sorority life, for confirmation and a comment on the mayor’s statement. Neither of them were immediately available for comment.
While cases continue to rise in Bulloch county, Ted Wynn, Bulloch County’s director of public safety, said that the number of positive cases will soon decrease.
“In three to four weeks we’ll see a downturn in these numbers,” said Wynn. “But it’s what we do in the next three to four weeks that’s critical in making sure this spread is squashed.”
McCollar also jabbed Georgia Governor Brian Kemp’s COVID-19 response.
“I absolutely believe we could have done more at the state level to keep our community safe,” said McCollar. “If the governor is not willing to take those measures then I think that we should be able to take those measures on the local level.”
“We need individuals to advocate for each other the importance of following CDC guidelines as it related to stopping the spread of [COVID-19],” said McCollar. “This is an all-of-us fight.”
Maria Case • Sep 2, 2020 at 4:38 pm
I disagree with the mayor stating that 1/2 the cases came from Greek life and rushing. The sororities have been doing the majority of rush and bid days virtually. Some events, limited, were held in person and masks worn. Blame the kids that felt the need to hang waiting to get into bars and places that were doing limited entrances. We saw many long lines were people were hardly 6 feet apart.
james • Sep 1, 2020 at 8:05 pm
Its the bars. GDI’s go out fir syllabus week too
Jasmine • Sep 1, 2020 at 8:01 pm
So the mayor is really going to pretend that the rise in cases is directly correlated to letting the bars, who never actually followed any kind of CDC guidelines, stay open for weeks? Considering it takes 2-14 days to show symptoms, the current rise was a result of the bars being opened and slammed all syllabus week, not from virtual sorority rush.