With Bulloch County, a Substantial Spread Community we saw COVID-19 positive cases soar by 470 since June 1st. Health care leaders are concerned about exceeding hospital capacity locally if this trend continues. This is why they have been pleading with citizens to wear face covering, comply with social distancing, wash their hands and avoid crowds to slow the spread of COVID-19.
We have seen a decrease in COVID-19 positive numbers over the last few days, which is promising news. However, we have learned there have been issues with testing capacity due to the July 4th holiday and testing supply shortages. We are not sure if that is reflected in the downward numbers or not.
To recap how exponentially the COVID-19 numbers have changed let us step back one month to June 1, 2020 and compare that day to July 1, 2020 and then to yesterday, July 7, 2020.
June 1, 2020 – Bulloch County
- 62 COVID-19 positive cases
- 2 COVID-19 patients at EGRMC
- 2 deaths
- 10 total Hospitalizations
- 2 COVID-19 patients positive at LTC facilities
- 2 COVID-19 staff positives at LTC facilities
July 1, 2020 – Bulloch County
- 391 COVID-19 positive cases
- 14 COVID-19 patients at EGRMC
- 4 deaths
- 30 total hospitalizations
- 6 COVID-19 positive patients at LTC facilities
- 16 COVID-19 positive staff at LTC facilities
July 7, 2020 – Bulloch County
- 532 COVID-19 positive cases
- 18 COVID-19 patients at EGRMC
- 4 deaths
- 39 total hospitalizations
- 21 COVID-19 positive patients at LTC facilities
- 20 COVID-19 positive patients at LTC facilities
Infection Rates and Positive Test Rate Percentage High
Bulloch Counties’ data seems to be tracking statewide data. We often hear that increased testing is the reason for the positive case number growth. Evidently that will impact the numbers. Epidemiologists and medial experts are saying that we still are not testing enough and are encouraging Georgia to test even more. They follow the infection rate and the percent of patients reporting positive compared to total tests statewide.
According to the COVID ACT NOW website, Georgia’s infection rate is 1.23 percent. This means, on average, each person in Georgia with COVID-19 is infecting 1.23 other people. Anything above 1.0 is considered high. As such, the total number of active cases in Georgia is growing at an unsustainable rate. If this trend continues, the hospital system may become overloaded. Caution is warranted.
A relatively high percentage (13.1%) of COVID tests were positive, which indicates that testing in Georgia is limited and that most cases may go undetected. At these levels, it is hard to know how fast COVID is actually spreading, and there is risk of being surprised by a second wave of disease.
