Hospitals were bursting at the seams in Bulloch County upon the return of students lifted mask mandates this fall, but recently there has been a notable decline of the surge.

Bulloch County made a goal of reducing the strain on hospital workers and got pretty close, but this made for a “very, very scary month of August” Bulloch’s Public Safety Director Ted Wynn said.

On August 23rd, 29.1% of tests given came back positive, suggesting more people may be positive than they were testing. Tuesday  the positivity  rate declined to ‘15.8%’, but the goal is to be below 5%.

“We are not there yet, but we have seen significant improvement,” Wynn said.

While this time frame saw gradual improvement in case numbers, Bulloch County lost 34 people to the virus – about one person a day.

“This delta variant is very deadly to some, there’s no doubt about that,” said Wynn. “Predominantly, those that get the sickest and require hopsitiliaztation have not been vaccinacted, so vaccinations still seem to be our best defense against severe illness.” 

The Delta variant quickly became the dominant strain in our state, being more than twice as contagious as the original.

Since the surge, Public Safety has been working to reduce nurse shortages and obtain additional ventilators at the local hospital. Last Monday East Georgia Regional Medical Center reported that its ventilator use reached an all-time high.

Wednesday, EGRMC had 30 COVID patients,with 15 of those on ventilators, comparable to the 60 COVID patients, with 17 on ventilators back in late August, according to Wynn.

It is evident that Bulloch county is seeing changes, and improvements since the initial strain surge last fall, but the county still, like the nation, has a long way to go.

“With the Sars COVID virus and the delta variant that we are dealing with right now, I certainly encourage washing your hands, and keeping your distance as much as you can” Wynn said. “Stay out of close contact and don’t share your air.”.